MEMOIR 

OF THE EXPEDIENCY OF AN 

ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT 

FOB 

BRITISH INDIA. 



MEMOIR 



OF THE EXPEDIENCY OF AN 



Ecclesiastical establishment 

FOR 

BRITISH INDIA j 

BOTH A3 THE MEANS OF 

PERPETUATING THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG OUR 
OWN COUNTRYMEN ; 

AND AS 

A FOUNDATION FOR THE ULTIMATE CIVILIZATION 
OF THE NATIVES. 



BY REV. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, M. A. 

One of the Chaplains at the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, Vice 
Provost of the College of Fort William, and Professor of Classics 
in the same and member of the Asiatic Society. 



THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 



CAMBRIDGE : 

PRINTED BY H1LLIASD AND METCALF. 

1811. 



CONTENTS. 



PART. I. 

ON THE MEANS OF PBESERVING THE PROFES- 
SION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG 
OUR COUNTRYMEN IN INDIA. 

CHAPTER I. 

Page, 

Present state of the English church in India, 17 

CHAPTER II. 

Of the establishment of the Romish church in the 
East, - - - - 18 

CHAPTER III. 

Of the extent of the proposed Ecclesiastical Establish- 
ment for British India, - - - - 21 

CHAPTER IV. 

Considerations deduced from the propriety or neces- 
sity of an Ecclesiastical Establishment, - 22 

CHAPTER V. 

Objections to an Ecclesiastical Establishment con- 
sidered, » = - - - - 25 



VI 



PART II. 

CIVILISATION OF THE NATIVES. 

CHAPTER I. 

Page. 

On the practicability of civilizing the Natives, 29 

CHAPTER II. 
On the policy of civilizing the Natives, - 33 

CHAPTER III. 

On the impediments to the civilization of the Natives. 
The philosophical spirit of Europeans formerly an 
impediment to the civilization of the Natives, 42 

CHAPTER IV. 

The sanguinary superstitions of the natives an imped- 
iment to their civilization, 45 

CHAPTER V. 
The numerous holydays of the Natives an impediment 
to their civilization, .... 48 

PART III. 

OF THE PROGRESS ALREADY MADE IN CIVILIZ- 
ING THE NATIVES OF INDIA. 

CHAPTER I. 

Of the extension of Christianity in India, under the 
influence of episcopal jurisdiction, - - 50 

CHAPTER II. 

Of the extension of Christianity in India, by the la- 
bours of Protestant Missionaries, 55 



vii 



APPENDIX. 

A. Record of the superstitious practices of the Hin- 

doos, now subsisting, which inflict immediate 
death, or tend to death ; deducted from the 
evidence of the Pundits and learned Brahmins 
in the College of Fort William, - 73 

B. Notes on the practicability of abolishing those 

practices of the Hindoos, which inflict imme- 
diate death, or tend to produce death ; collat- 
ed from the information and suggestions of the 
Pundits and learned Brahmins in the College 
of Fort William, - - -77 

C. A. D. 1802. Regulation VI. - - 79 

D. Report of the number of women who have burn- 

ed themselves on the funeral pile of their hus- 
bands within thirty miles round Calcutta, 
from the beginning of Bysakh (15th April) to 
the end of Aswin (15th October), 1804, 80 
Religious mendicants, ... 82 

F. Different Hindoo sects in Bengal, - - ib. 

G. Ancient civilization of India, 84 

H. Excessive polygamy of the Koolin Brahmins, 86 

I. Testimonies to the general character of the Hin- 

doos, - - - - 87 

K. Jewish Scriptures at Cochin, 89 
L. Shanscrit testimonies of Christ, - - 92 
M. Chinese version of the Scriptures ; and Chinese 

literature, ... 93 



V 

viii 



PREFACE 

TO THIS 

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, 

THE title of this work might lead one to suppose, that it 
would contain nothing, but what should have an exclusive regard 
to an Ecclesiastical Establishment for British India. On exam- 
ination, however, it will be found to contain such important and 
well authenticated facts, relating to the past history and present 
state of that country ; to its population, manners, and customs ; to 
its literature and laws ; and to its religious rites and ceremonies 5 
as furnish much entertainment and instruction. Separately 
from all consideration of the question respecting the expedi- 
ency of the proposed Establishment, it is, both in a literary 
and religious point of view, a very estimable work. The argu- 
ments here adduced for a Church Establishment will, probably, 
be thought by many, if not most, readers conclusive. There 
seems an increasing conviction, in England, of the expediency of 
this measure. A late English writer, having quoted some in- 
teresting passages from a chapter of this Memoir of Dr. Bu- 
chanan — whom he styles " an excellent man," and " a pious, 
" beneficent, and most liberal churchman,"— .observes, " Such an 
" appeal is unanswerable. The first step towards winning the 
" natives towards our religion is to show them that we have one. 
" This will hardly be done without a visible church,"* 

But we leave this question to the proper'judges. The prospect 
of extending, by some means, the benefits of civilization, and the 
infinitely greater benefits of Christianity, to the Natives of In- 
dia, is what gives to the subject, at this time, an unusual impor- 
tance. America is cooperating with Europe in this benevolent 
and pious design. Contributions have been forwarded from this 
country to India, towards procuring translations of the Sc riptures 
into the languages of the East ; and some of our young men have 
already devoted themselves to the Indian Mission. The present 
publication, it is believed, will be seasonable and useful. 

This work is now printed, for the first time in America, from 
a splendid English copy, in quarto (the only one that is known to 
be in this country), which was sent by a gentleman in England to 
a worthy minister in this State, who obligingly lent it for republi- 
cation. From this copy no alteration is made, excepting what 
will be found in the additional Notes, which are always distin» 
guished by the signature of the 

American Editor. 

Cambridge (Mass. J Feb. 1811. 
* Quarterly Review. 



TO THE 



MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, 

JOHN, 

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.* 

MY LORD, 

I. It is with propriety that a Work, embracing 
such objects as those professed by the following Me- 
moir, should be inscribed to the Primate of the Church 
of England. 

An appeal to the nation is certainly intended ; but 
that appeal would not have been thus made with the 
sanction of your Grace's name, had we not been en- 
couraged by the authority of your Grace's opinion. 
It has been communicated to us in India, that your 
Grace has already declared the expediency of giving 
an Ecclesiastical Establishment to the British Em- 
pire in the East. In support of such opinion, we here 
offer the evidence of facts which are incontrovertible ; 
and which demonstrate that the measure proposed, 
while it is recommended by religion, is demanded by 
justice and humanity. 

New sources of information on all Oriental sub- 

* This Dedication was written before the death of the late most Rev* 

erend Prelate was known at Fort William. 
2 



X 



jects have been opened by the College of Fort Wil- 
liam in Bengal Those persons who have held offi- 
cial sit nations in that institution during the last four 
years, have had constant opportunities of observing 
the conduct, and of learning the opinions, of the most 
intelligent natives. There are attached to the college, 
at this time, upwards of one hundred learned men, 
who have arrived, from different parts of India, Per- 
sia, and Arabia. In such an assemblage, the manners 
and customs of remote regions are distinctly describ- 
ed ; and their varying sentiments, religious and polit- 
ical, may be accurately investigated and compared. 

Of the learned Hindoos who have been employed 
as teachers, there were lately two from the Deccan, 
who profess the Christian faith ; and comport them- 
selves according to Christian manners. Two Pro- 
testant missionaries have also been attached to the in- 
stitution ; one of whom is lecturer in the Bengalee 
and Shanscrit department ; and has been for many 
years employed in preaching in the Bengalee language 
to the natives in the North of Hindoostan. The oth- 
er is a teacher of the Tamul or Malabar language ; 
and has been long attached to a mission in the South 
of the Peninsula. 

More desirable means of obtaining accurate and 
original intelligence could not have been presented to 
any one, who wished to investigate the state of the na- 
tives of India, with a view to their moral and religious 
improvement. 

It was the authenticity of this information, which 
chiefiy prompted me to record it in this Memoir. I 
should however have hesitated to submit it to the 



xi 

Public, had I not been honoured with a communica- 
tion from the Bishop of London, who expresses his 
" conviction of the indispensable necessity of a Reli- 
" gious Establishment for our Indian Empire." 

II. In the presence of the learned body of Asi- 
atics assembled at the College of Fort William, the 
Christian Scriptures have been exhibited for transla- 
tion into the Oriental tongues. 

When Ptolemy Philadelphus, three hundred years 
before the Christian asra, invited to Alexandria in E- 
gypt, seventy- two learned natives of Judea, to trans- 
late the Scriptures into the Greek language,* he could 
not have foreseen that his translation was divinely in- 
tended to be the means of the world's civilization, by 
diffusing the knowledge of the true God ; or that the 
Messiah promised therein, would in a future age quote 
its language, as the canonical version of the sacred 
original. 

This illustrious act of an heathen Prince, acknow- 
ledged, as it has been, by heaven, and celebrated 
amongst men, has yet been rarely proposed by Chris- 
tian nations, as an example for their imitation. 

Under the auspices of Marquis Wellesley, who, by 
favour of Providence, now presides in the govern- 
ment of India, a version of the holy Scriptures may 
be expected, not in one language alone, but in seven 
of the Oriental tongues ; in the Hindoostanee, Per- 
sian, Chinese, and Malay ; Orissa, Mahratta, and 
Bengalese ; of which the four former are the primary 

• The expense of which is computed by Prideaux to have amount- 
ed to two millions sterling. 



xii 

and popular languages of the Continent and Isles 

of Asia. 

In the centre of the Pagan world, and at the chief 
seat of superstition and idolatry, these works are ear- 
ned on ; and the unconverted natives assist in the 
translations, The Gospels have already been trans- 
lated into the Persian, Hindoostanee, Mahratta, Oris- 
sa, and Malay languages ; and the whole Scriptures 
have been translated into the Bengalee language. 
One edition of the Bengalee Bible has been distribut- 
ed among the natives ; and a second is in the press 
for their u. e. A version of the Scriptures in the Chi- 
nese language (the language of three hundred mill- 
ions of men) has also been undertaken ; and a por- 
tion of the work is already printed oil.* 

III. The publication of an important part of this 
Memojr was suggested by the perusal of certain let- 
ters, addressed by a King of England to the Christian 
instructors of the Hindoos. In the following pages 
your Grace will find letters written by King George 
the First, to Protestant missionaries in India ; in 
which his Majesty urges them to a zealous and faithful 
discharge of their ministry, that they may lay a founda- 
tion for the civilization of the nations of Asia ; and 
" that the work may not fail in generations to come." 

When I first saw these royal epistles, and reflect- 
ed on the period of time at which they were written, 
and the circumstances of the people to whom they 
were addressed, I perused them with emotions of rev- 
erence and admiration. When further I had called to 

* See Appendix M. 



xiii 

mind the happy effects they had contributed to produce, 
in enlightening a region of Paganism not less in extent 
than Great Britain, it seemed to me, that a circumstance 
so honourable to our country ought not to be conceal- 
ed, and that the Hindoos ought to send back these 
lette rs to die English nation. 

Another letter accompanies them, of equal celeb- 
rity in India, written by the Archbishop of Canterbu- 
ry in the reign of the same Prince. This letter, of- 
ten since recorded in Oriental tongues, is sent back 
by the evangelized Hindoos to your Grace, and to 
the " Society of Bishops and Clergy for promoting 
"Christian Knowledge," as a record of the honourable 
zeal which at so early a period distinguished that illus- 
trious body ; and as a proof, that when the appointed 
means are used, the blessing of God will follow. 
" Behold," say the Hindoos, " the divine answer to 
" the prayer in that letter ! Behold the fruit of your 
" rational endeavours for our conversion ! Our dark 
" region having enjoyed, during the period of a whole 
" century, the clear and steady light of your Society, 
" has now become itself the source of knowledge to 
" the surrounding heathen." 

IV. Our present most gracious Sovereign, who 
has reigned, for so many years, in the hearts and affec- 
tions of his subjects, both in Britain and in India ; 
and who, by strengthening the bands of true religion 
in a dissolute and unbelieving age, has exhibited so 
perfect an example of the duty, conduct, and glory 
of a Christian King, will doubtless receive with sat- 
isfaction, from the hands of the Hindoos, these letters 



xiv 

of his illustrious predecessor ; and having perused the 
testimonies of the divine blessing on the righteous 
and kingly work, will finish what has been so auspi- 
ciously begun, by making a religious Establishment 
for his Eastern Empire, the crowning act of his own 
most glorious reign. 

To their Sovereign they look; to Him, the 
supreme head of the Church, his Indian subjects look, 
for those religious blessings, which, by the divine fa- 
vour, are in his right hand to bestow. 

I have the honour to be, 
My Lord, 
Your Grace's most faithful 

and devoted servant, 

CLAUD. BUCHANAN. 

Calcutta, March 12, 1805. 



\ 

IJVTBODUCTIOJV. 

BY the reduction of the Mysorean and Mahratta 
empires, the greater part of India falls under the do- 
minion or influence of the British Government, and 
looks submissively for British civilization. By this 
event also, in connection xvith the other late cessions and 
conquests, the number of British subjects in India will 
be very considerably increased. 

Were we in the vicinity of Britain, the British Par- 
liament ivould not witlihold from us any beneficial aid 
it could afford, and we should enjoy religious advantag- 
es in common with our countrymen at home. But these 
advantages have been hitherto denied, because we are 
remote. An annual account of the revenual state 
of India, or the occurrence of some splendid event, 
engages the attention for a time ; but the ordina- 
ry circumstances of the people, European and na- 
tive, are not always in view ; and any casual or in- 
distinct notice of their situation, fails to excite those na- 
tional sentiments of humanity and Christian duty 9 
which, in other circumstances, would be constantly alive 
and efficient. 

It may be presumed that India has oj late occupied 
more of the public attention than formerly > and that 



xvi 



the minds of mm are now gradually converging to the 
consideration of the subjects of this Memoir. Our ex- 
tensive territorial acquisitions within the last few years, 
our recent triumph over our only formidable foe ; the 
avowed consequence of India in 'relation to the existing 
state of Eur ope ; and that unexampled and systematic 
prosperity of Indian administration, which has now con- 
solidated the British dominion in this country ; — every 
character of our situation seews to mark the present 
<zra, as that intended by Providence, for our taking in- 
to consideration the moral and religious state of our sub- 
jects in the East ; and for Britain 's bringing up her 
long arrear of duty, and settling her account honourably 
with her Indian Empire* 

The perpetuity of the Christian faith amongst Eu- 
ropeans in India, and the civilization oj the natives^ must 
rest equally on a foundation which, as yet, we have not ; 
and that is, an Ecclesiastical Establishment. The first 
part of this Memoir shall be wholly confined to a consid- 
eration of the means of preserving the Christian religion 
among our own countrymen. 



MEMOIR, &c. 



PART I. 

ON THE MEANS OF PRESERVING THE PROFESSION OF 
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG OUR COUN- 
TRYMEN IN INDIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRESENT STATE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH IN INDIA. 

1. The present establishment of English chaplains 
for the British empire in India, is not much greater than 
the factorial establishment in the time of Lord Clive. 

2. There are six military chaplains for Bengal, Ba- 
har, Oude, the Dooab, and Orissa. There are three 
chaplains in the town of Calcutta, five at the Presidency 
of Madras, and four at the Presidency of Bombay. Nor 
is that list ever full. Two-thirds of the number is the 
average for the last ten years. 

3. Some islands in the West Indies have a more reg- 
ular church establishment, and more extensive Christian 
advantages than the British empire in the East. Jamaica 
has eighteen churches ; English India has three ; one at 
Calcutta, one at Madras, and one at Bombay. 

4. At the establishment of Bencoolen, at the factory 
at Canton, at the flourishing settlement of Prince of 
Wales's Island, at Malacca, at Amboyna, and at the oth- 
er islands to the eastward now in our possession, there is 

3 



IS 



not a single clergyman of the English church, to perform 
the rite of Baptism, or to celebrate any other Christian 
office. The two British armies in Hindoostan, and 
in the Dekhan, lately in the field, had not one chaplain. 

5. The want of an ecclesiastical establishment has 
produced a system, not only of extreme irregularity in 
the discipline of our church, but of positive offence 
against Christian institution. Marriages, burials, and 
sometimes baptisms, by the civil magistrate or by a mil- 
itary officer, are not only performed, but are in a manner 
sanctioned by a precedent of thirty years. 

6. And as to the state of religion among a people who 
have no divine service, it is such as might be expected. 
After a residence for some years at a station where there 
is no visible church ; and where the superstitions of the 
natives are constantly visible, all respect for Christian in- 
stitutions wears away ; and the Christian Sabbath is no 
otherwise distinguished than by the display of the British 
flap:. 

7. Were we, on the other hand, to state particularly 
the regard paid by our countrymen to Christian instruc- 
tion, wherever it is regularly afforded, it would be an ad- 
ditional argument for granting the means of affording it. 
Wherever the Christian minister solicits attention, he 
finds an audience* In whatever part of British India he 
is stationed, there will be a disposition to respect the re- 
ligion of early life, when its public ordinances shall have 
been revived. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMISH CHURCH IN THE 

EAST. 

There are three archbishops and seventeen bishops 
of the Romish church established in the East. The na- 
tives naturally suppose that no such dignity belongs to 
the English church. In Bengal alone there are eight 
Romish churches ; four Armenian churches ; and two 



19. 



Greek churches. In confirmation of this statement, we 
shall subjoin an authentic Report of the Roman Catholic 
establishments, which has been transmitted by the Arch- 
bishop of Goa. 



ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH 
IN THE EAST. 

Archbishop of Goa, Metropolitan' 
and Primate of the Orient - - 

Archbishop of Cranganore in Mala- 
bar - 

Bishop of Cochin, Malabar 

Bishop of St. Thomas, at Madras.* 
His diocese includes Calcutta ; )> 
where he has a legate ' - 

Bishop of Malacca 

Bishop of Macao 

Bishop of Pekin - 

Two bishops in the interior of China 

Bishop of Mozambique 



Presented by the 
King of Por- 
tugal. 



Bishop of Siam - 
Bishop of Pegu - 

Bishop of Varapoli, Malabar - - 
Bishop of Bombay 
Bishop of Thibet - 
Prefect of the Romish Mission at 
Nepaulf - 

One archbishop and three bishops at 
Manilla, and the Philippine islands 

Bishop of Pondicherry. Vacant 



~) Presented by the 
5 Pope. 



~j Presented bv the 
> College,De Pro- 
paganda Fide. 



Presented by the 
King of Spain, 

C Presented by the 
< late King of 
( France. 



* The Danish missionaries, Bartholomew Zieg-enbalgh and John Ernest 
Grundler, in a Letter to the Society in England for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge, dated " Tranquebar January 9, 1713," observe, " The Roman 
" Missionaries themselves confessed to us at Madras, that their Congre- 
*' gation in that place consisted of twelve thousand members." Amer. JEd, 

f See Paper by him in Asiatic Researches, Vol. II. 



20 



CHURCHES IN BENGAL, AND NUMBER OF PRIESTS 
ATTACHED TO EACH. 



Church at Calcutta 
Church at Serampore 
Church at Chinsurah 
Church at Bandel 
Church at Cossimbazar 
Three churches at Chittagong 
Church at Backergunge - 
Church at Bowal 



Three priests. 
One priest. 
One priest. 
Three priests. 
One priest. 
Three priests. 
One priest. 
One priest. 



ARMENIAN CHURCHES, 



Church at Calcutta 
Church at Chinsurah 
Church at Decca 
Church at Sydabad 
Church at Madras 
Church at Bombay 
Church at Surat 



Three priests. 

One priest. 

Two priests. 

One priest. 

Three priests. 

One bishop and a priest. 

Two priests. 



GREEK CHURCHES. 



Church at Calcutta 
Chapel at Dacca 



Three priests, 
One priest. 



1. The above establishments are at present full, with 
the exception of the bishopric of Pondicherry, which was 
formerly presented by the King of France ; and it is 
stated that the revenues are the same granted at the first 
endowment, with some exceptions of increase. 

2. On a view of the ancient and respectable estab- 
lishment of the Romish church, we naturally desire to 
know its present character, and whether it can boast 
of a religious or civilizing efficiency. 

The Romish church in India is coeval with the Span- 
ish and Portuguese empires in the East : and though 
both empires are now in ruins, the church remains. 
Sacred property has been respected in the different rev- 
olutions ; for it is, agreeable to Asiatic principle to reve- 
rence religious institutions. The revenues are in gen- 
eral small, as is the case in the Roman Catholic countries 



21 



at home ; but the priests live every where in respectable 
or decent circumstances. Divine service is regularly 
performed, and the churches are generally well attended ; 
ecclesiastical discipline is preserved ; the canonical Eu- 
ropean ceremonies are retained ; and the benefactions 
of the people are liberal. It has been observed that the 
Roman Catholics in India yield less to the luxury of the 
country, and suffer less from the climate, than the Eng- 
lish ; owing, it may be supposed, to their youth being 
surrounded by the same religious establishments they 
had at home, and to their being still subject to the ob- 
servation and counsel of religious characters, whom they 
are taught to reverence. 

3. Besides the regular churches there are numerous 
Romish missions established throughout Asia, But the 
zeal of conversion has not been much known during the 
last century. The missionaries are now generally sta- 
tionary : respected by the natives for their learning and 
medical knowledge, and in general for their pure man- 
ners, they ensure to themselves a comfortable subsist- 
ence, and are enabled to show hospitality to strangers. 

4. On a general view of the Roman Catholic church, 
we must certainly acknowledge, that, besides its princi- 
pal design in preserving the faith of its own members, it 
possesses a civilizing influence in Asia ; and tiiat not- 
withstanding its constitutional asperity, intolerant and 
repulsive, compared with the generous principles of the 
Protestant religion, it has dispelled much of the darkness 
of Paganism. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE EXTENT OF THE PROPOSED ECCLESIASTICAL ESTAB- 
LISHMENT FOR BRITISH INDIA. 

A regular ecclesiastical establishment for Brit- 
ish India may be organized without difficulty. Two 
bishops might suffice, if India were less remote from 



22 



Britain : but the inconvenience resulting from sudden 
demise, and from the long interval of succession from 
England, renders it necessary that there should be three 
or more men of episcopal dignity ; an archbishop and 
metropolitan of India, to preside at the seat of the su- 
preme government in Bengal ; and one bishop at each 
of the two subordinate presidencies, Madras and Bom- 
bay. These three dioceses should embrace respectively 
all our continental possessions in the East. To these 
must be added a bishopric for Ceylon, to comprehend 
all the adjacent islands, and also New Holland and the 
islands in the Pacific Ocean. The number of rectors 
and curates in each diocese must be regulated by the 
number of military stations, and of towns and islands 
containing European inhabitants ; with an especial at- 
tention to this circumstance, that provision may be made 
for keeping the establishment full, without constant re- 
ference to England. The necessity of such provision 
will be illustrated by the following fact : In Bengal and 
the adjacent provinces there is at present an establish- 
ment of six military chaplains ; but that number is 
sometimes reduced one half. When a chaplain dies or 
goes home, his successor does not arrive, in most cases, 
till two years afterwards. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CONSIDERATIONS DEDUCED FROM THE PROPRIETY OR NE- 
CESSITY OF AN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT. 

I. Has it ever been fully considered on what 
ground a religious establishment has been given to all 
the other dependencies of Great Britain, and denied to 
India ? It might be deemed as sacred a duty of the 
mother country to support Christian institutions amongst 
us, as amongst the English in the West Indies ; and par- 
ticularly in Canada and Nova Scotia, both of which prov- 
inces are honoured with episcopal institutions. Our 



23 



peculiar situation seems to give to us a yet higher title 
to such advantages. Living in a remote and unhealthy 
country, amidst a superstitious and licentious people, 
where both mind and body are liable to suffer, we have, 
it will be allowed, as strong a claim on our country for 
Christian privileges as any other description of British 
subjects. Of the multitude of our countrymen who 
come out every year, there are but a few who ever 
return. When they leave England, they leave their 
religion forever. 

2. It will not be an objection to a church establish- 
ment in India that it has the semblance of a Royal in- 
stitution. Nor is it probable that it will be opposed on 
the ground of expense. By the late cessions and con- 
quests, provinces have been added to our sovereignty, 
whose annual revenues would pay the whole ecclesiastic- 
al establishment of England many times over. 

3. This is the only country in the whole world, civil- 
ized or barbarous, where no tenth is paid ; where no 
twentieth, no hundredth, no thousandth part of its reve- 
nues is given by government, for the support of the relig- 
ion of that government ; and it is the only instance in the 
annals of our country where church and state have been 
dismembered. We seem at present to be trying the 
question, " Whether religion be necessary for a state ;" 
whether a remote commercial empire, having no sign of 
the Deity, no temple, no type of any thing heavenly, may 
not yet maintain its Christian purity, and its political 
strength amidst Pagan superstitions, and a voluptuous 
and unprincipled people ? 

4. When the Mahometans conquered India, they in- 
troduced the religion of Mahomet into every quarter 
of Hindoostan, where it exists unto this day ; and 
they created munificent endowments for the establish- 
ment of their faith, The same country under our 
sovereignty, has seen no institution for the religion of 
Christ. 

5. How peculiar is that policy, which reckons on the 
perpetuity of an empire in the East, without the aid 
of religion, or of religious men ; and calculates that a 
foreign nation, annulling all sanctity in its character 



24 



amongst a people accustomed to reverence the Deity, 
will fiourish forever in the heart of Asia, by arms or 
commerce alone ! 

6. It is not necessary to urge particularly the danger 
from French infidelity and its concomitant principles, as 
an argument for a religious establishment in India ; for 
although these principles have been felt here, the danger 
now is much less than formerly. Under the administra- 
tion of Marquis Wellesiey, Frenchmen and French prin- 
ciples have been subdued. And nothing would now so 
consolidate our widely extended dominions, or prove 
more obnoxious to the counsels of oar European ene- 
mies in their attempts on this country, than an ecclesias- 
tical establishment ; which would give our empire in the 
East the semblance of our empire in the West, and sup- 
port our English principles, on the stable basis of English 
religion. 

7. The advantages of such an establishment, in re- 
spect to our ascendency among the natives, will be incal- 
culable. Their constant observation is, that " the Eng- 
lish have no religion and they wonder whence we have 
derived our principles of justice, humanity, magnanimi- 
ty, and truth. Amidst all our conquests in the East ; 
amidst the glory of our arms or policy; amidst our 
brilliant display of just and generous qualities, the Eng- 
lishman is still in their eyes "the Cafir;" that is, the 
Infidel. 

8. The Scriptures have been lately translated into 
some of the vernacular languages of India. The natives 
read these scriptures, and there they find the principles 
of the English. " But if these Scriptures be true," say 
they, " where is your church ?" We answer, " at 
home." They shake the head, and say that something 
must be wrong ; and that although there are good prin- 
ciples in our holy book, they might expect something 
more than internal evidence, if we would wish them to 
believe that it is from God ; or even that we think so 
ourselves. 



25 



CHAPTER V. 

OBJECTIONS TO AN ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT 
CONSIDERED. 

"Is an ecclesiastical establishment necessary ? 
u Our commercial Indian empire has done hitherto 
" without it." 

L Perhaps the character of our Indian empire has 
suffered by the want of a religious establishment. From 
whatever cause it proceeded, we know that the moral 
principles of our countrymen were, for many years, in a 
state of public trial before the tribunal of Europe, in re- 
lation to this commercial empire ; and that Indian im- 
morality was for a time proverbial. 

2. It was observed, in extenuation, at that period, that 
the case would have been the same with any other naiion 
in our peculiar circumstances ; that India was remote 
from national observation ; and that seduceinents were 
powerful and numerous. Ail this was true. And yet 
we are the only nation in Europe having dominions in 
the East, which being aware of these evils, declined to 
adopt any religious precaution to prevent them. What 
then was to be looked for in a remote and extensive em- 
pire, administered in all its parts by men, who came oat 
boys, without the plenitude of instruction of English 
youth in learning, morals, or religion ; and who were let 
loose on their arrival amidst native iicendoasness, and 
educated amidst conflicting superstitions ? 

3. Since that period the honour of the nation has been 
redeemed, and its principles have been asserted in a dig- 
nified manner. An ameliorat.on in the service, equally 
acknowledged in the character and prosperity of gw em- 
pire, has auspiciously commenced, and is rapidly pro- 
gressive. 

4 But perhaps an objection will be founded on this 
acknowledged improvement. If so much, it will be 
said, can be done by wise administration and by civil in- 
stitution, without a church, mav we not expect that ihe 
4 



26 



empire will for the future, be propitiously administered,, 
and flourish in progression y without the aid of a religious 
institution ? 

In answer to such an observation, we might ask, what 
it would avail the English nation that it were swaj ed by 
the ablest policy for the next ten years, if during that 
period, youth were denied the advantages of religious in- 
struction, and the national church were abolished? Pe- 
culiar as is the administration of India as subject to Brit- 
ain, no comparison can be instituted between its present 
consolidated empire, and its former factorial state ; or 
between what was tolerable a few years ago, and what is 
expedient now. 

5. It cannot be justly objected to an ecclesiastical es- 
tablishment in India, that it will promote colonization. 
It will probably have a contrary effect 

It is to be hoped indeed that the clergy themselves 
will remain in the country to an old age, in order that 
they may acquire the reverence of fathers, and that their 
pious services may not be withdrawn, when those servic- 
es shall have become the most valuable and endearing to 
their people. But it may be expected that the effect of 
their Christian counsel, will accelerate the return of oth- 
ers ; by saving young peisons from that course of life, 
which is so often destructive to health and fortune. 

6. What is it which confines so many in this remote 
country, to so late a period of life ? The want of faithful 
instructors in their youtrw What is it which induces 
that despondent and indolent habit of mind, which con^ 
templates home without affection, and yet expects here 
no happiness ? It is the want of counsellors in situations 
of authority, to save them from debt, on their arrival in 
the country ; and to guard them against that illicit native 
connection, (not less injurious, it has been said, to the 
understanding than to the affections,) which the long ab- 
sence of religion from this service has almost rendered 
not disreputable. 

7. Of what infinite importance it is to the state, that 
the Christian Sabbath should be observed by our coun- 
trymen here, and that this prime safeguard of loyal, as 
well as of religious principles, should be maintained in 



27 



this remote empire. But how shall the Sabbath be ob- 
served, if there be no ministers of religion ? For want 
of divine service, Europeans in general, instead of keep- 
ing the Sabbath holy, profane it openly. The Hindoo 
works on that day, and the Englishman works with him. 
The only days on which the Englishman works not, are 
the Hindoo holidays : for on these days, the Hindoo will 
7iot work with him. The annual investment sent to 
England, particularly that belonging to individuals, has 
this peculiar to it, considered as being under the law of 
Christian commerce, that it is, in part, the produce of 
Sunday labour by Christian hands. 

8. Does it not appear a proper thing to wise and good 
men in England, (for after a long residence in India, we 
sometimes lose sight of what is accounted proper at 
home,) does it not seem proper, when a thousand Brit- 
ish soldiers are assembled at a remote station in the 
heart of Asia, that the Sabbath of their country should 
be noticed ? That, at least, it should not become what it 
is, and ever must be, where there is no religious re- 
straint, a day of peculiar profligacy ! To us it would ap- 
pear not only a politic, but a humane act, in respect of 
these our coutrymen, to hallow the seventh day. Of a 
thousand soldiers in sickly India, there will generally be 
a hundred, who are in a declining state of health ; who, 
after a long struggle with the climate and with intempe- 
rance, have fallen into a dejected and hopeless state of 
mind, and pass their time in painful reflection on theirdis- 
tant homes, their absent families, and on the indiscretions 
of past life ; but whose hearts would revive within them 
on their entering once more the house of God, and hear- 
ing the absolution of the Gospel to the returning sinner. 

The oblivion of the Sabbath in India, is that which 
properly constitutes banishment from our country. The 
chief evil of our exile is found here ; for this extinction 
of the sacred day tends, more than any thing else, to 
eradicate from our minds respect for the religion, and 
affection for the manners and institutions, and even for 
the local scenes, of early life. 

9. Happy indeed it would be, were it possible to induce 
a learned and pious clergy to colonize in English India. 



28 



They would be a blessing to the country. But let us 
rightly understand what this colonization is; for the 
term seems to have been often used of late without a 
precise meaning. If to colonize in India, be to pass 
the whole of one's life in it, then do ninety out of the 
hundred colonize ; for of the whole number of Europe- 
ans whc come out to India, a tenth part do not return. 

10. At what future period will a better opportunity 
offer for meliorating the circumstances of life in this 
country. Snail our Christian nation wait till centuries 
elapse, before she consider India otherwise than the foun- 
tain of luxury for the mother country ; while her sons, in 
successive multitudes, sink under the inhospitable cli- 
mate, or perish in defence of the empire, denied the 
means of religious instruction and consolation, common 
to even other Christian people ! 

11. The slightest investigation, before a competent 
tribunal, of the state of our church, and circumstances of 
our countrymen in India, will confirm fully the statement 
}n the preceding pages ; and will amplify the necessity of 
the measure proposed in the mind of every man who is 
a friend to his country's honour or prosperity. 

12. It will be remembered that nothing which has 
been observed is intended to imply that any peculiar pro- 
vision should be made immediately for the instruction of 
the natives. Any extensive establishment of this kind, 
howe ver becoming our national character, or obligatory 
on our principles, cannot possibly be organized to effi- 
cient purpose, without the aid of a local church. 

13. Let us first establish our own religion amongst 
ourselves, and our Asiatic subjects will soon benefit by it. 
When once our national church shall have been confirm- 
ed in India, the members of that church will be the best 
qualified to advise the state as to the means by which, 
from time to time, the civilization of the natives may be 
promoted. 



2S 



PART II. 

CIVILIZATION OF THE NATIVES. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE PRACTICABILITY OF CIVILIZING THE NATIVES. 

1. Supposing an ecclesiastical establishment to 
have been given to India, we shall now consider the re- 
sult, in regard to the civilization of the natives.* No 
immediate benefit is to be expected from it in the way 
of revolution ; but it may be demonstrated by a deduc- 
tion from facts, that the most beneficial consequences 
will follow, in the way of ordinary effect, from an ade- 
quate cause. 

2. The expediency of encreasing our church estab- 
lishment in India, and of communicating Christian in- 
struction to our Asiatic subjects, was debated in Parlia- 
ment in the year 1793. The resolutions which recog- 
nise the general principle of " civilizing the natives of 
India," were carried, and now stand on record in the 
Journals of the House of Commons. It was considered, 
however, as an inauspicious moment (at the commence- 
ment of a perilous war) to organize the necessary estab- 
lishment for India, and the bill was referred to future 
consideration. 

3. Since that period the situation and circumstances 
of both countries are materially changed. The French 
revolution has imposed on us the duty of using new 
means for extending and establishing Christian princi- 
ples. Our territorial possessions in the East have been 
nearly doubled in extent ; and thence arises the duty of 
cherishing the religion and morals of the increased num- 

* See Appendix G. 



30 



ber of our countrymen, who occupy these possessions; 
as well as of promoting the civilization of our native 
subjects by every rational means, 

4. To civilize the Hindoos win be considered, by 
most men, our duty : but is it practicable ? and if prac- 
ticable, would it be consistent with a wise policy ? It has 
been alleged by some, that no direct means ought to be 
used for the moral improvement of the natives ; and it 
is not considered liberal or politic to disturb their super- 
stitions. 

Whether we use direct means or not, their supersti- 
tions will be disturbed under the influence of British civ- 
ilization. But we ought first to observe that there are 
multitudes who have no faith at all. Neither Hindoos 
nor Mussulmans, outcasts from every faith ; they are of 
themselves fit objects for the beneficence of the British 
Parliament. Subjects of the British empire, they seek 
a cast and a religion, and claim from a just government 
the franchise of a human creature. 

5. And as to those who have a faith, that faith, we 
aver, will be disturbed, whether we wish it or not, under 
the influence of British principles : this is a truth con- 
firmed by experience. Their prejudices weaken daily 
in every European settlement. Their sanguinary rites 
cannot now bear the noonday of English observation : 
and the intelligent among them are ashamed to confess 
the absurd principles of their own casts. As for extreme 
delicacy toward the superstitions of the Hindoos, they 
understand it not. Their ignorance and apathy are so 
extreme, that no me^ns of instruction will give them se- 
rious offence, except positive violence.* 

6. It is necessary to be explicit on this point ; for it 
seems that, independently of its supposed policy, it has 
been accounted a virtue at home, not to remove the pre- 
judices of the ignorant natives ; not to reprove their idol- 
atry ; not to touch their bloody superstition ; and that 
this sentiment has been emblazoned by much eloquence 

* The Christian missionary is always followed by crowds of the common 
people, who listen with great pleasure to the disputation between him and 
the Brahmins ; and are not a little amused when the Brahmins depart, and 
appoint another day for the discussion. The people sometimes bring- back 
the Brahmins by constraint, and urge them to the contest again. 



31 



and rendered very popular ; just as if we were perform- 
ing an act of charity by so doing ; and as if it were so 
considered by the natives. It is not an act of charity on 
our part, nor is it so considered by them. They them- 
selves tell us plainly why we do not mind their religion ; 
" not because we fear to disturb their tranquillity, but 
" because we have no religion of our own." 

7. A Hindoo may live with his English master for 
twenty years, and never once hear him mention his reli- 
gion. He gives then his master no credit for his delica- 
cy in not proselyting him. But he gives him credit for 
this, that he is a humane man, just in his conduct, of good 
faith in his promises, and indifferent about his (the Hin- 
doo's) prejudices. The very reverse of all which, was 
his predecessor the Mahometan. 

8. Not to harass the natives unnecessarily on any sub- 
ject is doubtless good policy : but in this case it is a cheap 
policy, for it is perfectly natural to us, and therefore has 
ever been maintained. Did we consider their moral im- 
provement equal in importance to tribute or revenue, we 
should long ago have attempted it. We can claim no 
merit then for this forbearance, for it arises from our own 
unconcern about the Christian religion. 

9. But so great is the truth and divine excellence of 
our religion, that even the principles which flow from it 
remotely, lead the heathens to enquire into its doctrine^ 
the fountain. Natives of all ranks in Hindoostan, at 
their courts and in their bazars, behold an awful contrast 
between their base and illiberal maxims, and our just and 
generous principles. Of this they discourse to each oth- 
er, and enquire about the cause, but we will not tell them. 
We are ashamed to confess that these principles flow 
from our religion. We would indeed rather acknowl- 
edge any other source. 

10. The action of our principles upon them is never- 
theless constant ; and some aid of religious considera- 
tion, on our part, would make it effective. They are a 
divided people. They have no common interest. There 
is no such thing as a hierarchy of Brahminical faith in 
Hindoostan, fixed by certain tenets, and guided by an 
infallible head. They have no ecclesiastical polity, 



32 



church government, synods, or assemblies. Some Brah- 
mins are supported by hereditary lands granted to a 
family or attached to a temple, and pass their time in 
passive ignorance, without concern about public affairs. 
Brahmins having no endowment, engage in lay offices, 
as shopkeepers, money-lenders, clerks, and writers ; or 
in other inferior and servile occupations, Others seek a 
religious character, and prosecute study at some of the 
Hindoo schools, of which there are a great number in 
Hindoostan. These are, in general, supported by the 
contributions of their students, or by public alms. The 
chief of these schools are Benares, Nuddeea, and Ougein. 
Benares has acquired a higher celebrity for general learn- 
ing than the ouher schools. But a Brahmin of Nuddeea 
or of Calcutta, acknowledges no jurisdiction of a Brahmin 
at Benares, or of any other Brahmin in Hindoostan. The 
Brahminical system, from Cape Comorin to Tibet, is 
purely republican, or rather anarchical.* The Brahmins 
of one province often differ in their creed and customs 
from those in another. Of the chief Brahmins in the 
college of Fort William, there are few (not being of the 
same district) who will give the same account of their 
faith, or refer to the same sacred books. So much do 
the opinions of some of those now in the college differ, 
that they will not so much as worship or eat with each 
other. The Brahmins in general cannot read their sa- 
cred books. Their ignorance of writing and of the ge- 
ography of the country is such, that there is no general 
communication among them, political or religious. 

11. The natives of Hindoostan are a divided people. 
They have no common interest. To disseminate new 
principles among them is not difficult. They are less 
tenacious of opinion than of custom. In no other coun- 
try has there been such a variety of opinions on religious 
subjects, for many ages past, as in Hindoostan. The 
aborigines of the country, denominated Hindoos or Gen- 
toos, were not all followers of Brahma. Some were 
worshippers of the deity Boodh. The numerous nation 
of the Sieks, which is a secession from Hinduism, forms 
another great class. The inhabitants of the hilis to the 

* See Appendix H. 



S3 



south and north of the peninsula, (according to some, the 
oldest race,) are again different from the former, and from 
each other. All these different sects have their respect- 
ive subdivisions, schisms, and contrarieties in opinion 
and in practice. And from all of them the Mahometans, 
who are now spread over all Hindcostan, are entirely 
distinct; and from these again, differ the various ramifi- 
cations of the Christian faith. The sea coasts, for seve- 
ral centuries past, have been peopled by Portuguese, 
Armenian, Greek or Nestorian Christians ; and now the 
Protestant religion flourishes wherever it is taught. In 
no other country is there such a variety of religions, or 
so little concern about what true religion is, as in British 
India. A man may worship any thing or nothing. 
When one native meets another on the road, he seldom 
expects to find that he is of the same cast with himself. 
It has been calculated that there are an hundred casts of 
religion in India. Hence the Hindoo maxim, so grateful 
to the philosophers, that the Deity is pleased with the 
variety, and that every religion, or no religion, is right. 

To disseminate the principles of the Christian religion 
and morals throughout the provinces under our domin- 
ion, is certainly very practicable.* 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE POLICY OF CIVILIZING THE NATIVES. 

1. In governing conquered kingdoms, a Christian 
policy may be exercised, or a Roman policy. 

A Roman policy sacrifices religion to every other con- 
sideration in the administration of the new empire. The 
religion of the native is considered as an accident or pe- 
culiarity, like that of his colour or form of body, and as 
being natural rather than acquired ; and therefore no at- 
tempt is made to change it. And this is correct reasoning, 
on the principle that all religions are human and equal. 
The policy therefore founded on this principle, professes 

* See Appendix F. 

5 



34 



to cultivate the intellectual powers of the native in every 
branch of knowledge, except religion. 

It is evident that the administration of India during 
the last forty years, has been conducted on the principles 
of the Roman policy. The religion of the natives contin- 
uing the same, they have been properly governed by 
their own laws. 

2. A Christian policy embraces all the just principles 
of the Roman policy, but extends its aims of utility 
further by endeavouring to improve the mind of the 
native in religious knowledge, as soon as the practicabil- 
ity of the attempt shall appear obvious. The practica- 
bility will of course be retarded in some conquered heath- 
en states, by particular circumstances. But a Christian 
policy ever looks to the Christian religion for the perpe- 
tuity of empire ; and considers that the knowledge of 
Christian principles can alone enable the natives to com- 
prehend or to appreciate the spirit of Christian govern- 
ment. Our religion is therefore inculcated £qf the fol- 
lowing reasons generally : 

1st. Because its civilizing and benign influence is cer- 
tain and dndeniaSle. We have seen that it has dispens- 
ed knowledge and happiness to every people, who have 
embraced it. 

2dly. Because it attaches the governed to their gover- 
nors ; and facilitates our intercourse with the natives. 
There can never be confidence, freedom and affection 
between the people and their sovereign, where there ex- 
ists a difference in religion. 

3diy. The Christian religion is inculcated on account 
of its eternal sanctions ; and the solemn obliga- 
tion of Christians to proclaim them, whenever an oppor- 
tunity shall be afforded by Providence of doing it with 
probable success ; it being by no means submitted to 
our judgment, or to our notions of policy, whether we 
shall embrace the means of imparting Christian knowl- 
edge to our subjects or not ; any more than it is submit- 
ted to a Christian father, whether he shall choose to in- 
struct his family or not. 

These motives will acquire additional weight, if, first, 
the natives be subject to an immoral or inhuman super- 



35 



stition ; and, secondl} T , if we voluntarily exercise domin- 
ion over them, and be benefitted by that dominion. 

3. The question of policy, regarding the instruction 
of our native subjects, the Mahometans and Hindoos, 
is to be determined by the consideration of their moral 
state. 

The Mahometans profess a religion, which has ever 
been characterised by political bigotry and intemperate 
zeal. In this country that religion still retains the char- 
acter of its bloody origin ; particularly among the high- 
er classes. Whenever the Mahometan feels his religion 
touched, he grasps his dagger. This spirit was seen in 
full operation under Tippoo's government ; and it is not 
now extinguished. What was the cause of the alarm which 
seized the English families in Bengal after the late mas- 
sacre of our countrymen at Benares, by the Mahometan 
chiefs ? There was certainly no ground for apprehen- 
sion ; but it plainly manifested cur opinion of the peo- 
ple. — We have consolidated our Indian empire by our 
power ; and it is now impregnable ; but will the Ma- 
hometan ever bend humbly to Christian dominion ? 
Never, while he is a Mahometan. 

4. Is it then good policy to cherish a vindictive relig- 
ion in the bosom of the empire for ever? Would it not 
accord with the dictates of the soundest wisdom to allow 
Christian schools to be established, where the children 
of poor Mahometans might learn another temper ; the 
good effects of which would be felt before one generation 
pass away ? The adult Hindoo will hardly depart from 
his idol, or the Mahometan from his prophet, in his old 
age ; but their children, when left destitute, may be 
brought up Christians, if the British parliament please. 
But as matters now stand, the follower of Mahomet im- 
agines that we consider it a point of honour to rev- 
erence his faith and to despise our own. For he, 
every day, meets with Europeans, who would more 
readily speak with disrespect of their own religion, 
than of his. No where is the bigotry of this intolerant 
faith nursed with more tenderness than in British 
India. While it is suffering concussion in every 
other part of the world, even to Mecca, its centre. 



36 



(as by a concurring providence, toward its final abo- 
lition.) here it is fostered in the peaceful lap of Christian 
liberality. 

5. A wise policy seems to demand that we should use 
every means of coercing this contemptuous spirk of our 
native subjects. Is there not more danger of losing this 
country, in the revolution of ages, (for an empire with- 
out a religious establishment cannot stand for ever,) by 
leaving the dispositions and prejudices of the people in 
their present state, than by any change that Christian 
knowledge and an improved state of civil society, would 
produce in them ? And would not Christianity, more 
effectually than any thing else, disunite and segregate our 
subjects from the neighbouring states, who are now of 
the same religion with themselves ; and between whom 
there must ever be, as there ever has been, a constant 
disposition to confederacy and to the support of a common 
interest ? At present, there is no natural bond of union 
between us and them. There is nothing common in 
laws, language or religion, in interest, colour or coun- 
try. And what is chiefly worthy of notice, we can ap- 
proach them in no other way than by the means of our 
religion.* 

6. The moral state of the Hindoos is represented as 
being still worse than that of the Mahometans. Those, 
who have had the best opportunities of knowing them, 
and who have known them for the longest time, concur 
in declaring that neither truth, nor honesty, honour, 
gratitude, nor charity, is to be found pure in the breast 

* " The newly converted Christians on the coast of Malabar are the 
" chief support of the Dutch East India Company at Cochin ; and are al- 
6t ways ready to take up arms in their defence. The Pagans and Mahom- 
" etans are naturally enemies to the Europeans, because they have no sim- 
" ilarity to them either in their external appearance, or in regard to their 
" manners, their religion, or their interest. If the English therefore do not 
" endeavour to secure the friendship of the Christians in India, on whom 
" can they depend ? How can they hope to preserve their possessions in 
" that remote country I — In the above observations may be found one of the 
" reasras why neither Hyder Ah nor Tippoo Sultan could mainta n their 
" ground against the English and the king of Travancore on the coast of 
" Malabar The great number of Christians residing there, whom Hyder 
" and his son every where persecuted, always took part with the English" 
See Bartolomeo's Voyage, page 207, and note. 

" Ten thousand native Christians lost their lives during that war." 
ibid. 149. 



37 



of a Hindoo. How can it be otherwise ? The Hindoo 
children have no moral instruction. If the inhabitants 
of the British isles had no moral instruction, would they 
be moral ? The Hindoos have no moral books. What 
branch of their mythology has not more of falsehood and 
vice in it, than of truth and virtue ? They have no mor- 
al gods. The robber and the prostitute lift up their 
hands with the infant and the priest, before an horrible 
idol of clay painted red, deformed and disgusting as the 
vices which are practised before it.* 

7. You will sometimes hear it said that the Hindoos 
are a mild and passive peorle. They have apathy rather 
than mildness ; their hebetude of mind is perhaps their 
chief negative virtue. They are a race of men of weak 
bodily frame, and they have a mind conformed to it, timid 
and abject in the extn me. They are passive enough to 
receive any vicious impression. The English govern- 
ment found it necessary lately to enact a law against par- 
ents sacrificing their own children. In the course of the 
last six months, one hundred and sixteen women were 
burnt alive with the bodies of their deceased husbands 
within thirty miles round Calcutta, the most civilized 
quarter of Bengal, f But independent!} of their super- 
stitious practices, they are described by competent 
judges as being of a spirit vindictive and merciless ; 
exhibiting itself at times in a rage and infatuation, which is 
without example among any other people.J But it is not 

* The Hindoo superstition has been denominated lascivious and bloody. 
That it is bloody, is manifest from the daily instances of the female sacri- 
fice, and of the commission of sanguinary or painful rites. The ground of 
the former epithet may be discovered in the description of their religious 
ceremonies : " There is in most sects a right-handed or decent path ; and 
" a left-handed or indecent mode of worship." 

See Essay on the Religious Ceremonies of the Brahmins, by K. T. 
Colebrooke, Esq. Asiat. Res. Vol. VII p. 281. That such a principle 
should have been admitted as systematic in any religion on earth, may be 
considered as the last effort of mental depravity in the invention of a super- 
stition to blind the understanding, and to corrupt the heart. 

f From April to October, 1804. See Appendix D. 

* Lord Teignmouth, while President of the Asiatic Society in Bengal, 
delivered a discourse in which he illustrated the revengeful and pitiless 
spirit of the Hindoos, by instances which had come within his own knowl- 
edge while resident at Benares. 

In 1791, Soodishter Meer, a Brahmin, having refused to obey a sum- 
mons issued by a civil officer, a force was sent to compel obedience. To 



38 



necessary to enter into any detail to prove the degraded 
state of the Hindoos : for if it were demonstrated that 
their moral depravity, their personal wretchedness, and 
their mental slavery, were greater than imagination can 
conceive, the fact would have no influence on those 
who now oppose their Christian instruction. For, on 
the same principle that they withhold instruction from 
them in their present state, they would deny it, if they 
were worse. Were the books of the Brahmins to sanc- 
tion the eating of human flesh, as they do the burning 
of women alive, the practice would be respected. It 
would be considered as a solemn rite consecrated by the 
ancient and sacred prejudices of the people, and the can- 
nibal would be esteemed holy.* 

8. During the last thirty years there have been many 
plans suggested for the better administration of the gov- 
ernment of this country ; but no system which has not 
the reformation of the morals of the people for its basis, 
can ever be effective. The people are destitute of those 
principles of honesty, truth, and justice, which respond 
to the spirit of British administration ; they have not a 
disposition which is accordant with the tenor of Christian 
principles. No virtues, therefore, no talents, or local 

intimidate them, or to satiate a spirit of revenge in himself, he sacrificed 
one of his own family. i( On their approaching his house, he cut off the 
" head of his deceased son's widow, and threw it out." 

In 1793, a Brahmin named Balloo, had a quarrel with a man about a 
field, and, by way of revenging himself on this man, he killed his own 
daughter. " I became angry, said he, and enraged at his forbidding me to 
" plough the field, and bringing my own little daughter Apmunya, who was 
" only a year and a half old, I killed her with my sword." 

About the same time, an act of matricide was perpetrated by two Brah- 
mins, Beechuck and Adher. These two men conceiving themselves to have 
been injured by some persons in a certain village, they brought their moth- 
er to an adjacent rivulet, and calling aloud to the people of the village, 
* s Beechuck drew his scymetar, and, at one stroke, severed his mother's 
" head from the body j with the professed view, as avowed by both parent 
" and son, that the mother's spirit might for ever haunt those who had in- 
" jured them." Asiat. Res. Vol. IV, p. 357. 

Would not the principles of the Christian religion be a good substitute 
for the principles of these Brahmins of the province of Benares ? 

It will, perhaps, be observed, that these are but individual instances. 
True : but they prove all that is required, Is there any other barbarous 
nation on earth which can exhibit such instances ? 

* It is a fact that human sacrifices were formerly offered by the Hinr 
doos i and as it would appear, at that period which is fixed by some authors 
for the ara of their civilization and refinement. 



39 



qualification of their governors can apply the most per* 
feet system of government with full advantage to such 
subjects. Something may be done by civil institution 
to ameliorate their condition, but the spirit of their su- 
perstition has a continual tendency to deterioration. 

9. The European who has been long resident in In- 
dia, looks on the civilization of the Hindoos with a hope- 
less eye. Despairing, therefore, of intellectual or moral 
improvement, he is content with an obsequious spirit 
and manual service. These he calls the virtues of the 
Hindoo ; and, after twenty years service praises his do- 
mestic for his virtues, 

10. It has been remarked, that those learned men who 
are in the habit of investigating the mythology of the 
Hindoos, seldom prosecute their studies with any view 
to the moral or religious improvement of the people. 
Why do they not ? It is because they think their im- 
provement hardly practicable. Indeed the present cir- 
cumstances of the people seldom become a subject of 
their investigation. Though such a number of women 
sacrifice themselves every year in the vicinity of Calcut- 
ta, yet it is rare that a European witnesses the scene, or 
even hears of the event. At the time that government 
passed the law which prohibited the drowning of child- 
ren, or exposing them to sharks and crocodiles at Sau- 
gur, there were many intelligent persons in Calcutta who 
had never heard that such enormities existed. Who cares 
about the Hindoos, or ever thinks of visiting a village to 
enquire about thei? state, or to improve their condition ! 
When a boat oversets in the Ganges, and twenty or thir- 
ty of them are drowned, is the event noticed as of any 
consequence, or recorded in a newspaper, as in England? 
or when their dead bodies float down the river, are they 
viewed with other emotions than those with which we 
behold the bodies of other animals ? 

11. A few notices of this kind will at once discover 
to the accurate observer of manners in Europe, the de- 
graded character of the Hindoos in our estimation, what- 
ever may be the cause. What then is the cause of 
this disregard of the persons and circumstances of the 
Hindoos ? The cause is to be found in the superstition, 



40 



ignorance, and vices of the Hindoo character ; and in 
nothing else.* 

12. Now it is certain that the morals of this people, 
though they should remain subject to the British gov- 
ernment for a thousand years, will never be improved by 
any other means than by the principles of the Christian 
religion. The moral example of the few English in In- 
dia cannot pervade the mass of the population. What 
then is to be expected as the utmost felicity of British 
administration for ages to come ? It is this, that we 
shall protect the country from invasion, and grant to the 
inhabitants to manufacture our investments in solemn 
stillness, buried in personal vice, and in a senseless idol- 
atry. 

13. Providence hath been pleap^d to grant to us this 
great empire, on a continent where*,' a few years ago, we 
had not a foot of land. From it we expoi t annually an 
immense wealth to enrich our own country. What do 
we give in return ? Is it said that we give protection to 
the inhabitants, and administer equal laws ? This is ne- 
cessary for obtaining our wealth. But what do to e give 
in return ? What acknowledgment to Providence for 
its goodness has our nation ever made ? What benefit 
hath the Englishman ever conferred on the Hindoo, as 
on a brother ? Every argument brought in support of 
the policy of not instructing the natives our subjects, 
when traced to its source, will be found to flow from 
principles of Deism, or of Atheism, or of Polytheism, 
and not from the principles of the Christian religion. 

14. Is there any one duty incumbent on us as con- 
querors, toward a conquered people, resulting from our 
being a Christian nation, which is not common to the 
ancient Romans or the modern French ? If there be, 
what is it ? The Romans and the French observed such 
delicacy of conduct toward the conquered, on the sub- 
ject of religion, that they not only did not trouble 
them with their own religion, but said unto them, " We 
" shall be of yours," So far did these nations excel 
us in the policy of not " disturbing the faith of the na- 
tives." 

* See Appendix L 



41 



Can any one believe that our Indian subjects are to 
remain for ever under our government involved in their 
present barbarism, and subject to the same inhuman 
superstition ? And if there be a hope that they will be 
civilized, when is it to begin, and by whom is it to be 
effected ? 

15. No Christian nation ever possessed such an ex- 
tensive field for the propagation of the Christian faith, as 
that afforded to us by our influence over the hundred 
million natives of Hindoostan. No other nation ever 
possessed such facilities for the extension of its faith as 
we now have in the government of a passive people ; 
who yield submissively to our mild sway, reverence our 
principles, and acknowledge our dominion to be a bless- 
ing. Why should it be thought incredible that Provi- 
dence hath been pleased, in a course of years to subju- 
gate this Eastern empire to the most civilized nation in 
the world, for this very purpose ? 

16. " The facility of civilizing the natives," some will 
admit, " is great ; but is the measure safe ? It is easy to 
" govern the Hindoos in their ignorance, but shall we 
" make them as wise as ourselves ! The superstitions 
" of the people are no doubt abhorrent from reason ; 
u they are idolatrous in their worship, and bloody in 
u their sacrifices ; but their manual skill is exquisite in 
Xi the labours of the loom ; they are a gentle and obse- 
" quious people in civil transaction." 

In ten centuries the Hindoos will not be as wise as the 
English. It is now perhaps nineteen centuries since 
human sacrifices were offered on the British altars. The 
progressive civilization of the Hindoos will never injure 
the interests of the East India Company. But shall a 
Christian people, acknowledging a Providence in the 
rise and fall of empire, regulate the policy of future 
times, and neglect a present duty ; a solemn and impe- 
rious duty : exacted by their religion, by their publiG 
principles, and by the opinion of the Christian nations 
around them ! Or can it be gratifying to the English na- 
tion to reflect, that they receive the riches of the East 
on the terms of chartering immoral superstition ! 

17. No truth has been more clearlv demonstrated 

% 



42 



than this, that the communication of Christian instruc- 
tion to the natives of India is easy ; and that the benefits 
of that instruction, civil as well as moral, will be inesti- 
mable ; whether we consider the happiness diffused 
among so many millions, or their consequent attachment 
to our government, or the advantages resulting from the 
introduction of the civilized arts. Every thing that can 
brighten the hope or animate the policy of a virtuous 
people organizing a new empire, and seeking the most 
rational means, under the favour of heaven, to ensure its 
perpetuity ; every consideration, we aver, would per- 
suade us to diffuse the blessings of Christian knowledge 
among our Indian subjects* 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE IMPEDIMENTS TO THE CIVILIZATION OF THE NA- 
TIVES. THE PHILOSOPHICAL SPIRIT OF EUROPEANS FOR- 
MERLY AN IMPEDIMENT TO THE CIVILIZATION OF THE 
NATIVES. 

1. A chief obstacle to the civilization of the Hin- 
doos during the last fifty years, is accounted by some 
to have been the unconcern of Europeans in India, par- 
ticularly the French, as to their moral improvement, and 
the apathy with which they beheld their superstitions. 
This has been called the philosophical spirit, but im- 
properly ; for it is a spirit very contrary to that of true 
philosophy. The philosophical spirit argues in this 
manner : " An elephant is an elephant, and a Hindoo is 
" a Hindoo. They are both such as nature made them. 
" We ought to leave them on the plains of Hindoostan 
" such as we found them." 

2. The philosophical spirit further shews itself in an 
admiration of the ancient systems of the Hindoos, and 
of the supposed purity of their doctrines and morals in 
former times. But truth and good sense have for some 
years been acquiring the ascendency, and are now amply 
vindicated by a spirit of accurate investigation, produc- 



43 



by the great encouragement which has been lately 
afforded to researches into Oriental literature. 

3. The College of Fort William will probably illus- 
trate to the world what India is, or ever was ; for all 
the sources of Oriental learning have been opened. 

The gravity with which some learned disquisitions 
have been lately conducted in Europe, and particularly 
in France, respecting Indian science and Indian anti- 
quity, is calculated to amuse us. 

The passion for the Hindoo Joques seems to have 
been first excited by a code of Gentoo laws, transmitted 
with official recommendation from this country, and 
published at home by authority ; and yet not by the 
code itself, but by the translator's preface, in which there 
are many solemn assertions impugning the Christian 
revelation, and giving the palm to Hindoo antiquity. 
The respect due to the code itself seems to have been 
transferred to this preface, which was written by a young 
gentleman, who observes, " that he was held forth to the 
u public as an author, almost as soon as he had com- 
" menced to be a man ;" that he could not translate from 
the Shanscrit language himself, "for that the Pundits who 
" compiled the code, were to a man resolute in rejecting 
" all his solicitations for instruction In this dialect ; and 
" that the persuasion and influence of the Governor Gen- 
" eral (Mr. Hastings) were in vain exerted to the same 
" purpose." Having then translated the Gentoo Laws 
from a Persian translation, he thinks himself justified in 
believing, "that the world does not now contain annals of 
" more indisputable antiquity than those delivered down 
" by the ancient Brahmins ; and that we cannot possibly 
" find grounds to suppose that the Hindoos received the 
u smallest article of their religion or jurisprudence from 
" Moses ; though it is not utterly impossible that the 
" doctrines of Hindoostan might have been early trans- 
" planted into Egypt, and thus have become familiar to 
" Moses. 5 '* 

4. These sentiments for the first time ushered on the 
nation under the appearance of respectable sanction, 
were eagerly embraced. The sceptical philosophers, 

* Preface to Gentoo Code. 



44 



particularly in France, hoped that they were true : and 
the learned in general were curious to explore this sa- 
cred mine of ancient literature. " Omne ignotum pro 
magnifico," Strangers to the language, they looked in- 
to the mystical records of the Brahmins as into the 
mouth of a dark cavern of unknown extent, probably 
inaccessible, perhaps fathomless. Some adventurers 
from the Asiatic Society entered this cavern, and brought 
back a report very unfavourable to the wishes of the 
credulous infidel. But the college of Fort William 
holds a torch which illuminates its darkest recesses. 
And the result is, that the former gloom, which was 
supposed to obscure the evidence of our religion, being 
now removed ; enlightened itself, it reflects a strong 
light on the Mosaic and Evangelic Scriptures, and 
Shanscrit Record may thus be considered as a new at- 
testation to the truth of Christianity, granted by the di- 
vine dispensation, to these latter ages.* 

5. The whole library of Shanscrit learning is accessi- 
ble to members of the college of Fort William. The 
old keepers of this library, the Pundits, who would give 
no access to the translator of the Gentoo code, or to the 
then Governor of India, now vie with each other in giv- 
ing every information in their power. Indeed there is 
little left for them to conceal. Two different giammars 
of the Shanscrit language are now compiling in the col- 
lege, one by the Shanscrit professor; and the other by 
the Shanscrit teacher, without any communication as to 
each other's system, so absolute is their confidence in a 
knowledge of the language. The Shanscrit teacher pro- 
posed to the council of the college to publish the whole 
of the original Shasters in their own character, with an 
English translation. The chief objection to this was, 
that we should then publish many volumes, which few 
would have patience to read. Such parts of them how- 
ever as are of a moral tendency, or which illustrate im- 
portant fac ts in Eastern history or science, were recom- 
mended for publication. 

6. It does not appear that any one work in Shanscrit 
literature has yet been discovered, which can vie in an* 

* See Appendix I,* 



45 



tiquity with the poem of Homer, on the plain ground of 
historical evidence, and collateral proof. It is probable 
that there may be some work of an older date ; but we 
have no evidence of it. If ever such evidence should be 
obtained, the world will soon hear of it. As to the al- 
leged proof of antiquity from astronomical calculation, 
it is yet less satisfactory than that from the Egyptian zo- 
diac, or Brydone's lava.* 

What use shall we make of the illustration of these 
facts, but to urge, that, since the dark traditions of India 
have confirmed the truth of divine Revelation, the bene- 
fits of that Revelation may be communicated to India, 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SANGUINARY SUPERSTITIONS OF THE NATIVES, AN 
IMPEDIMENT TO THEIR CIVILIZATION. 

i. A n other impediment to the civilization of the 
natives is the continuance of their sanguinary supersti- 
tions, by which we mean those practices which inflict 
immediate death, or tend to produce death. All bloody 
superstition indurates the heart and affections, and ren- 
ders the understanding inaccessible to moral instruction. 
No ingenuous arts can ever humanize the soul addicted 
to a sanguinary superstition. 

We shall not pollute the page with a description of 
the horrid rites of the religion of Brahma. Suffice it to 
say that no inhuman practices in New Zealand, or in any 
other newly discovered land of savages, are more offen- 
sive to natural feeling, than some of those which are 
committed by the Hindoo people. 

* The editors of the Asiatic Researches in London have availed them- 
selves of the occasion of that work's being- republished at home, to prefix a 
preface to the fifth volume, containing- sentiments directly contrary to those 
professed and published by the most learned members of the Asiatic Soci- 
ety. They will be much obliged to the London editors of that work to take 
no such liberty in future ; but to allow the Society to write its own prefaces, 
and to speak for itself. We are far off from France here. The Society 
professes no such philosophy. 



46 



It surely has never been asserted that these enormities 
cannot be suppressed. One or two instances may be 
mentioned, which will shew that the Hindoo supersti- 
tions are not impregnable. 

2. It had been the custom from time immemorial, to 
immolate at the island of Saugor, and at other places re- 
puted holy on the banks of the Ganges, human victims, 
by drowning, or destruction by sharks. Another horrid 
practice accompanied it, which was the sacrifice of the 
first born child of a woman, who had been long barren.* 

The Pundits and chief Brahmins of the college of 
Fort William were called upon to declare, by what sanc- 
tion in their Shasters, these unnatural cruelties were 
committed. They alleged no sanction but custom, and 
what they termed " the barbarous ignorance of the 
low casts." On the first intimation of the practice to 
the Governor General Marquis Wellesley, it was abol- 
ished.! Not a murmur followed ; nor has any attempt 
of the kind since been heard of. 

3. A similar investigation will probably soon take 
place respecting the custom of women burning them- 
selves alive on the death of their husbands.J The Pun- 
dits have already been called on to produce the sanction 
of their Shasters. The passages exhibited are vague 
and general in their meaning ; and differently interpreted 
by the same casts. \ Some sacred verses commend the 
practice, but none command it ; and the Pundits refer 
once more to custom* They have however intimated, 
that if government will pass a regulation, amercing by 
fine every Brahmin who attends a burning, or every Ze- 
mindar who permits him to attend it, the practice cannot 
possibly long continue ; for that the ceremony, unsanc- 
tified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity 
and consequence in the eyes of the people. 

• At the Hindoo festival in 1801, twenty-three persons sacrificed them- 
selves, or were sacrificed by others, at the island of Saugor. 

\ See Regulation. Appendix C. 

\ From a late investigation it appears that the number of women who 
sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every year is, on an 
average, upwards of two hundred. See Appendix D. 

§ See Appendix A. 



47 



The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the 
abolition of this opprobrium of a Christian administra- 
tion, the female sacrifice ; which has subsisted, to our 
certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander the 
Great. 

4. An event has just occurred, which seems, with 
others, to mark the present time, as favourable to our 
endeavour to qualify the rigour of the Hindoo supersti- 
tion. 

In the course of the Mahratta war, the great temple of 
Jaggernaut in Orissa has fallen into our hands, This 
temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahom- 
edans. It is resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter 
of India. It is the chief seat of Brahminical power, and 
a strong-hold of their superstition. At the annual festi- 
val of the Rutt Jattra, seven hundred thousand persons 
(as has been computed by the Pundits in college) as- 
semble at this place. The voluntary deaths in a single 
year, caused by voluntary devotement,* by imprison- 
ment for nonpayment of the demands of the Brahmins, 
or by scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is in- 
credible. The precincts of the place are covered with 
bones. Four coss square (about sixty-four square 
miles) are accounted sacred to Jaggernaut. Within the 
walls the priests exercised a dominion without control. 
From them there was no appeal to civil law or natural 
justice, for protection of life or property. But these 
enormities will not be permitted under the British gov- 
ernment. At the same time that we use no coercion to 
prevent the superstitions of the natives, we permit a 
constant appeal to the civil power against injustice, op- 
pression, and inhumanity ; and it must have a beneficial 
influence on the whole Hindoo system, if we chastise 
the enormity of their superstition at the fountain head.f 

# By falling under the wheels of the rutt or car. 

f The rigour of the Mahometan faith coerced the Hindoo superstition ; 
and was. so far, friendly to humanity. The Hindoos were prohibited from 
burning- their women without official permission. Our toleration is cele- 
brated by some, as being boundless. It is just to tolerate speculative relig- 
ions ; but it is doubtful whether there ought to be any toleration of practical 
vice, or of the shedding of human blood. 

" All religions," says Colonel Dow, "must be tolerated in Bengal, ex- 
** cept in the practice of some inhuman customs, which the Mahometans 



48 



CHAPTER V. 

THE NUMEROUS HOLYDAYS OF THE NATIVES AN IMPEDIMENT 
TO THEIR CIVILIZATION. 

1. Another obstacle to the improvement of the 
natives is the great number of their holy days. These 
holydays embody their superstition. On such days, its 
spirit is revived, and its inhuman practices are made fa- 
miliar : and thus it acquires strength and perpetuity. 
The malignity of any superstition may be calculated al- 
most exactly by the number of its holydays, for the 
more the mind is enslaved by it, the more voluminous 
will be its ritual, and more frequent its ceremonial of ob- 
servance. 

2. In the Hindoo calendar there are upwards of an 
hundred holydays ;* and of these government recognises 
officially a certain number. In addition to the native 
holydays, the fifty-two Christian holydays, or fifty-two 
Sundays in the year, are (on Christian principles) gen- 
erally allowed to natives employed in the public service. 
During those Hindoo holydays which are officially re- 
cognised, the public offices are shut up, on account of 
the festival '(as it is termed) of Doorga Puja, of Churruck 
Puja, of Rutt Jattraf, or of some other. But great det- 
riment to the public service arising from the frequent 
recurrence of these Saturnalia, government resolved 
some years ago to reduce the number, which was done 

" already have in a great measure destroyed. We must not permit young 
f * widows, in their virtuous enthusiasm, to throw themselves on the funeral 
" pile with their dead husbands, nor the sick and aged to be drowned, when 
" their friends despair of their lives." Dow's History, VoL III. p. 128. 

This passage was written by Colonel Dow upwards of thirty years ago* 
How many thousands of our subjects within the province of Bengal alone, 
have perished in the flames and in the river, since that period ! 

• The Brahmins observe two hundred and upwards. 

f An Englishman will be of opinion that the Rutt Jattra cannot well be 
styled a festival. " The rutt or car containing the Hindoo gods is drawn 
" along by the multitude, and the infatuated Hindoo throws himself down 
«' before it, that he may be crushed to death by the wheels." This sacrifice is 
annually exhibited at Jaggernaut. Neither will the Churruck Puja be con- 
sidered a festive occasion. At this Puja, " men are suspended in the air 
" by iron hooks passed through the integuments of the back." This is an 
annual exhibition at Calcutta. [See Appendix B.] 



49 



accordingly. It now appears that, on the same principle 
that a few of them were cut off, we might have refused 
our official recognition of any ; the Pundits having unan- 
imously declared that these holydays are not enjoined by 
their sacred books. 

3. It may be proper to permit the peopje in general to 
be as idle as the circumstances of individuals will per- 
mit ; but their religious law dees not require us to recog- 
nise one of their holydays officially. To those natives 
employed in the public service, the fifty-two Sundays 
are sufficient for rest from bodily labour.* To give 
them more holydays is to nurse their superstitions, and 
to promote the influx of religious mendicants into indus- 
trious communities. f In what other country would 
it be considered a means of promoting the happiness 
of the common people, to grant them so great a por- 
tion of the year to spend in idleness and dissipation ? 
The indulgence operates here as it would in any other 
country; it encourages extravagance, licentious hab- 
its, and neglect of business among the mselves ; and it 
very seriously impedes the business of the state, and de- 
ranges commercial negotiation. 

* No people require fewer days of rest than ihe Hindoos; for they 
know nothing- of that corporal exertion and fatig-ue from labour, which in 
other countries render regular repose so grateful to the body and spirits, 
f See Appendix E. 



7 



50 



PART III. 



OF THE PROGRESS ALREADY MADE IN CIVILIZING THE. 
NATIVES OF INDIA. 



CHAPTER L 

OF THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA, UNDE&' 
THE INFLUENCE OF EPISCOPAL JURISDICTION, 

1. A. sentiment has for some time prevailed in 
England very unfavourable to the measure of attempting 
the improvement of the Hindoos. It has been said that 
their prejudices are invincible ; and that the Brahmins 
cannot receive the Christian religion. If the same as- 
sertion had been made of our forefathers in Britain, and 
of the Druids, their priests, it would not have been more 
contrary to truth. It is now time to disclose to the En- 
glish nation some facts respecting the prevalence of the 
Christian religion in India, which certainly will not be 
received with indifference. 

2* The religion of Christ has been professed by Hin- 
doos in India from time immemorial ; and thousands 
of Brahmins have been converted to the Christian faith. 
At this time there are upwards of one hundred and fifty 
thousand natives in one district alone, on the coast of 
Malabar, who profess that religion, and who live under 
a regular canonical discipline, occupying one hundred 
and nineteen churches. 

3. It is probable that the Christian faith has been 
known in India since the time of the Apostles.* But 

* Eusebius relates that Pant<enus, of Alexandria, visited India about 
the year 189 ; and there found Christians who had the Gospel of St» Mat- 
thew in Hebrew, which they informed him they had received from St. Bar- 
tholomew. He carried a copy of it to Alexandria, where it existed in the 
time of Jerome. At the council of Nice in the year 325 the primate of In- 
dia was present, and subscribed his name. In the year following Frumen- 



51 



we have authentic historical record for the following 
particulars. In the fifth century a Christian bishop 
from Antioch, accompanied by a small colony of Syrians, 
arrived in India, and preached the Gospel in Malabar. 
" They made at first some proselytes among the Brah- 
" mins and Nairs, and were, on that account, much res- 
" pected by the native princes."* 

4. When the Portuguese first arrived in India* 
they were agreeably surprised to find a hundred 
Christian churches on the coast of Malabar. But when 
they had become acquainted with the purity and sim- 
plicity of their doctrine, they were offended. They 
were yet more indignant when they found that these 
Hindoo Christians maintained the order and discipline 
of a regular church under episcopal jurisdiction; and 
that for thirteen hundred years past, they had enjoyed a 
succession of bishops appointed by the patriarchal see 
of Antioch. Mar Joseph was the bishop, who filled the 
Hindoo see of Malabar at that period. The Portuguese 
used every art to persuade him to acknowledge the 
supremacy of the pope ; but in vain. He was a man of 
singular piety and fortitude, and declaimed with great 
energy against the errors of the Romish church. But 
when the power of the Portuguese became sufficient for 
their purpose, they invaded his bishopric, and sent the 
bishop bound to Lisbon. A synod was convened at 
Diamper in Malabar, on the 26th June, 1599, at which 
one hundred and fifty of the clergy of his diocese ap^ 
peared. They were accused of the following opinions, 
which were by their adversaries accounted heretical ; 

this was consecrated primate of India by Athanasius at Alexandria. Fru- 
mentius resided in Hindoostan for a long period, and founded many church- 
es. He acquired great influence among She natives, and was appointed 
guardian of one of their kings during his minority. See Eusebius, Hist. 
Eccl. 1. 3, c. 1.— Sozomenes, i. 2, c. 24 ; and Socrates, Hist. Eccl. 1. 1, c 29. 

In the year 530 Cosmos* the Egyptian merchant, who had travelled 
through the greatest part of the Indian peninsula, found in the Dekhun and 
in Ceylon, a great many churches and several bishops. 

* " Many of them to this day preserve the manners and mode of life of 
" the Brahmins, as to cleanliness, and abstaining from animal food." A- 
siat. Res. Vol. VII. page 368. " The bulk of the St, Thome Christians 
" consists mostly of converts from the Brahmins and Shoudren cast; and 
" not as the new Christians, or proselytes made by the Portuguese mission,* 
- sc aries ; of the lowest tribes." Asiat. Res. Vol. VII. page 381,. 



52 



tl That they had married wives ; that they owned but two 
" sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; that they 
" denied Transubstantiation ; that they neither invoked 
" saints nor believed in purgatory ; and, that they hid 
" no other orders or names of dignity in the church than 
" bishop and deacon."* 

These tenets they were called on to abjure, or to suf- 
fer instant suspension from all church benefices. It was 
also decreed that all the Syrian and Chaldean books in 
their churches, and all records in the episcopal pal- 
ace, should be burnt ; in order, said the inquisitors, 
" that no pretended apostolical monuments may re- 
u main."! 

5. Notwith standing these violent measures, a great 
body of the Indian Christians resolutely defended their 
faith, and finally triumphed over all opposition. Some 
shew of union with the Romish church was at first pre- 
tended, through terror of the Inquisition ; but a congress 
was held by them on the 22d of May, 1653, at Alangat- 
ta ; when they formerly separated from that commu- 
nion. J They compose at this day the thirty -two schis- 
matic churches of Malabar ; so called by the Roman 
Catholics, as resembling the Protestant schism in Eu- 
rope. At tnis time their number is about fifty thousand. 

* Conferences, with Malabarian Brahmins, page 15 : printed at London 
1719. [See The History of the Church of Malabar, translated from the Por- 
tuguese, into English by Michael Geddes, Chancellor of the Cathedral 
Chin ch of Sarum. London, 1694. The Synod of Diamper met on the 
20th of June, and closed its session on the 26tu. The Acts and Decrees 
oi this Synod are subjoined to that History. Di.cree XIV of Action III. 
condemns *' The Book, of Orders," used in the Malabarian Church, which 
contains the last article abovementioned, asserting, " That there are only 
" two orders, Diaconate and Priesthood." 

M V La Croze, who wrote his celebrated History nearly a century ago 
£1!T23], considered the discovery of this very ancient Church (almost all 
the tenets of which agree with those of the Protestants) as deserving the at- 
tention of all good men : " Ma seconde et derniere Remarque merite, ce 
" me semble, 1' attention de toutes les personnes qui aiment sincerement la 
" Religion. Nous trouvons ici une Eglise tres-ancienne, dont presque tous 
" les Dogmes < onveniennent avec ceux de la Religion reformee. Les 
" Chretiens Orientaux, ... sous 1' obeissance d' un Patriarche independant 
" d' I' Empire Remain, et p' ayant aucun commerce avec lui, . . . ignorent 
" presque toutes les Traditions Romaines qui sont rejettees par les Protes- 
f tants." Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, ii. 90. Amer. £d."] 

f See Appendix K. 

$ Annales Mission, page 193. 



53 



These churches soon afterwards addressed a letter to 
the Patriarch of Antioch, which was forwarded by means 
of the Dutch government, and published at Leyden in 
1714 ; in which they request " that a spiritual guide 
" may be sent, together with such men as are versed in 
* interpreting the holy Scriptures."* But no spiritual 
guide was ever sent.f 

The province of Malabar now forms part of the Brit- 
ish dominions ; and divine Providence hath placed these" 
churches under our government. 

6. The manners of these Christians are truly simple 
and primitive. Every traveller who has visited the 
churches in the mountains takes pleasure in describing 
the chaste and innocent lives of the native Christians. 
The congregations support each other, and torm a kind 
of Christian republic. The clergy and elders settle all 
disputes among members of the community ; and the 
discipline, for the preservation of pure morals, is very 
correct, and would do honour to any Protestant church 
in Europe. J 

7. The climate of Malabar is delightful; and the 
face of the country, which is verdant and picturesque, 
is adorned by the numerous churches of the Christia is. 
Their churches are not, in general, so small as the 
country parish churches in England. Many of them 

* Malabarian Conferences, 1719. Preface. 

\ In the year 1752, some bishops were sent from Antioch to consecrate 
by episcopal ordination, a native priest, one of their number The old 
man, I hear, is yet alive. The episcopal residence is at Narnatte, ten miles 
inland from Porca. 

\ At certain seasons, the Agapse, or love feasts, are celebrated, as in 
primitive times. On such occasions they prepare delicious cakes, called 
Appam, made of bananas, honey, and rice-flour- The people assemble in 
the church-yard, and, arranging themselves in rows, each spreads before 
him a plaintain leaf. When his is done, the clergy-man, standing in the 
church-door, pronounces the benediction ; and the overseers of the church, 
walking through between the rows, gives to each his portion " It is cer- 
<e tainly an affecting scene, and capable of elevating the heart, to behold 
" six or seven thousand persons, of both sexes and of all ages, assembled 
" and receiving together, with the utmost reverence and devotion, their 
*' Appam, the pledge of mutual union and love." Bartrlomeo, page 424. 

Compare the amiable lives and character of these Christian Hindoos 
with the rites of their unconverted countrymen in Bengal, described in Ap- 
pendix B, 



54 



are sumptuous buildings,* and some of them are visi- 
ble from the sea. This latter circumstance is noticed 
incidentally by a writer who lately visited the country : 

" Having kept as close to the land as possible, the 
" whole coast of Malabar appeared before us in the form 
" of a green amphitheatre. At one time we discovered 
6L a district entirely covered with cocoa-nut-trees; and, 
" immediately after, a river winding through a delightful 
" vale, at the bottom of which it discharged itself into 
" the sea. In one place appeared a multitude of people 
£t employed in fishing ; in another, a snow-white church 
" bursting forth to the view from amidst the thick-leav- 
" ed trees. While we were enjoying these delightful 
u scenes with the early morning, a gentle breeze, which 
u blew from the shore, perfumed the air around us with 
u the agreeable smell wafted from the cardamon, pepper, 
" beetel, and other aromatic herbs and plants."! 

A snow-white church bursting on the view from 
amidst the trees ! Can this be a scene in the land 
of the Hindoos; where even a church for Europe- 
ans is so rarely found ? And can the persons re- 
pairing to these snow-white churches be Hindoos ; that 
peculiar people who are supposed to be incapable of re- 
ceiving the Christian religion or its civilizing principles ? 
Yes, they are Hindoos, and now " a peculiar people," 
some of them formerly Brahmins of Malabar ; who, be- 
fore means were used for their conversion, may have 
possessed as invincibie prejudices against the religion of 
Christ as the Brahmins of Benares, or of Jaggernaut. 

* " The great number of such sumptuous buildings," says Mr. Wrede, 
** as the St. Thome Christians possessed in the inland parts of the Travan- 
** core and Cochin dominions, is really surprising- ; since some of them, 
" upon a moderate calculation, must have cost upwards of one lack of ru- 
*' pees, and few less than half that sum." Asiat. Res. Vol. VII. p. 380. 
<J Almost all the temples in the southern Malabar, of which. I had occasion 
* f to observe more than forty^ were built in the same style, and nearly on 
* f the same plan. The facade with little columns (evidently the style of 
" architecture prevalent in Asia Minor and Syria) being* every where the 
« same." Ibid. 379. 

In the year 1790, Tippo the Mahometan destroyed a great number of the 
Christian churches, and a general conflagration of the Christian villages 
marked the progress of his destroying- host. Ten thousand Christians 
lost their lives during the war. Bartolomeo, page 149. 



J- Bartolomeo, p. 425. 



55 



Whatever good effects have been produced by the 
Christian religion in Malabar, may also be produced in 
Bengal, and in every other province of Hindoostan. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE EXTENSION OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA BY THE 
LABOURS OF PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES. 

1. In the bill brought into Parliament in 1793 for 
communicating Christian instruction to our Asiatic sub- 
jects, there was a clause for an " Establishment of Mis- 
" sionaries and Schoolmasters." Such an establishment 
(if it ever should be necessary) might seem more prop- 
erly to follow , than to precede, the recognition of our 
national church in Hindoostan. It is probable, howev- 
er, that the proposition for sending missionaries was less 
favourably received on account of the reigning prejudice 
against the name and character of " missionary." In 
England it is not professional in church or state. No 
hoav ur or emolument is attached to it. The character 
and purpose of it are doubtful, and the scene of action 
remote. Even the propriety of sending missionaries 
any where has been called into question. 

2. It is not, however, those who send missionaries, 
but those to whom they are sent, who have a right to 
give an opinion in this matter. 

The same spirit which sent missionaries to Britain in 
the fourth century will continue to send missionaries to 
the heathen world to the end of time, by the established 
church, or by her religious societies. 

3. Wherever the Christian missionary comes, he is 
well received. Ignorance ever bows to learning : but 
if there be a desire to impart this learning, what barba- 
rian will turn away ? The priests will murmur when 
the Christian teacher speaks as one having authority; 
but " the common people will hear him gladly." Wheth- 
er in the subterranean hut of frozen Greenland, or un- 



56 



der the shade of a banian-tree in burning India, a Chris- 
tian missionary surrounded by the listening natives, is 
an interesting sight ; no less grateful to humanity than 
to Christian charity, 

4. But who is this missionary? He is such as 
Swartz in India, or Brainerd in America, or the Mora- 
via;! in Labrador ; one who leaving his country and kin- 
dred, and renouncing honour and emolument, embraces 
a life of toil, difficulty, and danger ; and contented with 
the fame of instructing the ignorant, " looks for the re- 
" compense of eternal reward." 

There is a great difference between a civilizing me- 
chanic and an apostolic missionary. A mechanic of 
decent morals is no doubt useful among barbari- 
ans. The few around him learn something of his 
morals with his trade. And it is the duty of civilized 
states to use such means for improving the barbarous 
portions of the human race. 

But the apostolic missionary, who has studied the 
language and genius of the people, is a blessing of a 
higher order. His heavenly doctrine and its moral in- 
fluence extend, like the light of the sun, over multitudes 
in a short time ; giving life, peace, and joy, enlarging 
the conceptions, and giving birth to all tne Christian 
charities. How shall we estimate the sum of human 
happiness produced by the voice of Svvartz alone ! 
Compared with him, as a dispenser of happiness, what 
are a thousand preachers of philosophy among a refined 
people ! 

5. Some of the English think that we ought not " to 
*' disturb the faith of the natives." But some of the 
Hindoo Rajahs think differently. Tne king of Tanjore 
requested Mr. Swartz to disturb the faith of his wicked 
subjects by every means, and to make them, if possible, 
honest and industrious men. Mr. Swartz endeavoured 
to do so, and his services were acknowledged by the 
English government at Madras,* as well as by the King 
of Tanjore. In the year 1787, " the King of Tai.jore 
" made an appropriation forever of land of the yearly in- 



* By Lord Macartney and General Coote. 



57 



" come of five hundred pagodas, for the suoport of the 
" Christian missionaries in his dominions,"* 

6. In the debate in 1793, on the proposal for sending 
missionaries to India, some observation was made on 
Mr. S vartz, honourable to himself as a man, but unfa- 
vourable to his objects as a missionary. The paper 
containing this speech reached Mr. Swartz in India, and 
drew from him his famous Apology, published by the 
Society for promoting Christian knowledge. Perhaps 
no Christian defence has appeared in these latter ages 
more characteristic of the apostolic simplicity and prim- 
itive energy of truth, than this Apology of the venerable 
Swartz. 

Without detailing the extraordinary success of him- 
self and his brethren in converting thousands of the 
natives to the Christian religion, a blessing which some 
may not be able to appreciate ; he notices other circum- 
stances of its beneficial influence, which all must un- 
derstand. 

His fellow missionary, " Mr. Gericke, at the time 
" the war broke out at Cuddalore,L\vas the instru- 
" ment, in the hands of Providence* by which Cudda- 
" lore was saved from plunder and bloodshed. He sav- 
" ed many English gentlemen from becoming prison- 
" ers to Hyder Ali, which Lord Macartney kindly ac- 
" knowledged." 

Mr. Swartz twice saved the fort of Tanjore. When 
the credit of the English was lost, and when the credit 
of the Rajah was lost 5 on the view of an approaching 
enemy, the people of the country refused to supply the 
fort with provisions ; and the streets were covered with 
the dead. But Mr Swartz went forth and stood at the 
gate, and at his word they brought in a plentiful supply. 

Mr. Swartz, at different times, aided the English gov- 
ernment in the collection of revenues from the refract ry 
districts. He was appointed guardian to the family of 
the deceased King of Tanjore ; and he was employed 
repeatedly as mediator between the English government 
and the country powers. On one occasion, when the 

• See Account of Proceeding's of Society for promoting" Christian Know- 
ledge, for 1788. 

8 



58 



natives doubted the purpose and good faith of the Eng- 
lish, they applied to Mr. Swartz ; 44 Sir, if you send a 
" person to us, send a person who has learned all your 
44 Ten Commandments."* 

7. Some of the English think that we ought not to 
disturb the faith of the Hindoos ! After the apostolic 
Swartz had laboured for fifty years in evangelizing the 
Hindoos, so sensible were they of the blessing, that his 
death was considered as a public calamity. An innu- 
merable multitude attended the funeral. The Hindoo 
Rajah 44 shed a flood of tears over the body, and covered 
44 it with a gold cloth."! His memory is still blessed 
among the people. The King of Tanjore has lately 
written to the bishops of the English church, requesting 
that a monument of marble may be sent to him, 44 in 
44 order," he adds, 44 that it maybe erected in the church 
44 which is in my capital, to perpetuate the memory of 
44 the late Reverend Mr. Swartz, and to manifest the es- 
44 teem I have for the character of that great and good 

* See Society Proceeding's for 1792, page 114 Should Mr. Swartz's 
name be mentioned in any future discussion, the honour of the English na- 
tion is pledged to protect his fame. The bishops and clergy of England, 
in their account of proceedings of the t5 Society for promoting Christian 
" Knowledge," for 1792, have sanctioned the following character of Mr. 
Swartz : 

" He is an example of all that is great and good in the character of a 
" Christian missionary. He hath hazarded his life through a long series of 
" years for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. His behaviour, while it 
" has endeared him to the common orders of men, has procured him ad- 
" mission before the throne of the proudest monarch of the East. There 
" do we find this worthy servant of God, pleading die cause of Christianity, 
" and interceding for his mission ; and doing it without offence. There 
" do we find him renouncing- every personal consideration ; and; in the 
" true spirit of the divine Lawgiver, choosing rather to suffer affliction with 
" the people of God, than to enjoy any pleasures or distinctions which this 
« e world could afford him; esteeming- the reproach of Christ and tne ad- 
" vancement of a despised religion far greater riches than Indian treas- 
« ures." 

See Dr. Glasse's Charge to a Missionary proceeding- to India. It will 
not be foreign to the subject of this Memoir to insert another passage of 
til at Charge : 

* 5 Happy will it be, if our conquests in India should open the way for a 
" further introduction of the Gospel, and for the extension and enlarge- 
" ment of Christ's kingdom. What a lustre would such an accession give 
e< to the British conquests in the Eastern world, when it should appear, 
" that we have been conquering-, not for ourselves alone, but for Sim also 
" in whom ive believe." 

■j- :*erfogee Maha Rajah of Tanjore. See Society Proceedings for 1801, 
p. 141, Let us hail this act as the emblem of the whole Hindoo supersti- 
tion bending to the Christian faith. 



59 



¥ man, and the gratitude I owe to him, my father and 
* c my friend." 

8. But whence was this Swartz '? and under what 
sanction did he and his predecessors exercise their min- 
istry as Christian preachers to the heathen ? 

The first person appointed to superintend a Protest- 
ant mission in India was Bartholomew Ziegenbalgius, a 
man of considerable learning and of eminent piety, edu- 
cated at the University of Halle in Germany. Having 
been ordained by the learned Btrrmaiinus, Bishop of 
Zealand, in his twenty-third year, he ailed for India in 
1705. A complete. century will have revolved in Oc- 
tober of this year, since the mission in India began. Im- 
mediately on his arrival, he applied hims Jo to the study 
of the language of the country, and with such success, 
that in a few years he obtained a classical knowledge of 
it ; and the colloquial tongue became as familiar to him 
as his own, His fluent orations addressed to the natives, 
and his frequent conferences with the Brahmins,* were 
attended with almost immediate success ; and a Chris- 
tian church was founded in the second year of his min- 
istry,! which has been extending its limits to the present 
time. 

9. During his residence in India he maintained a cor- 
respondence with the King of England and other prin- 

* A volume of these conferences was published in London in 1719, 8vo. 

f_f A building" was now erected at the expense of 250 perdous, and 
was named New Jerusalem. 't stood without the town, " in the midst of 
** a multitude of M&labarians, near the high road, built all of stone." It 
was consecrated August 14. 1707, in the presence of a great concourse of 
Heathens, Mahometans, and Christians ; to whom a sermon was preached 
both in Portuguese and in Malabarich. From that time the missionaries 
statedly preached in this church three times a week in both those lan- 
guages, Of their indefatigable diligence, in this interesting mission, some 
judgment may be formed from a single fact, mentioned by Ziegenbalgius 
in 1708 : <e As for myself, (to whose share the learning of the native lan- 
" guage of this country is Mien) I have explained hitherto the Articles 
" of the Christian Faith in six and twenty Sundays sermons. These 
" I dictated to a Malabarick Amanuensis, and then got them by heart 
" word by word." — The labours of these pious missionaries were so blest, 
that their Congregation increased every year ; and the first church being 
too small for its accommodation, a larger one was buik eleven years after- 
ward. It was consecrated in the name of the Holy Trinity, October 11, 
1718 ; and the missionaries soon after observed, in a letter to king George I s 
fS We are now constantly preaching in it in three languages." Amer. JEd.'] 



60 



ces, and with many of the learned men on the continent. 
In the year 1714, he returned to Europe for a few 
months on the affairs of the mission. On this occa- 
sion he was honoured with an audience by his Maj- 
esty George the First. He was also invited to at- 
tend a sitting of the bishops in the " Society for pro- 
" moting Christian Knowledge;" where he was receiv- 
ed with an eloquent address in the Latin language ;* to 
which he answered in the Tarnul tongue ; and then de- 
livered a copy of his speech translated into Latin. 

10. The grand work to which the King and the En- 
glish bishops had been long directing his attention, was 
a translation of the Scriptures into the Tamul or Mala- 
barian language. 

This indeed was the grand work ; for wherever the 
Scriptures are translated into the vernacular tongue, and 
are open and common to all, inviting enquiry and caus- 
ing discussion, they cannot remain a dead letter ; they 
produce fruit of themselves, even without a teacher, 
Wi en a heathen views the word of God in all its parts, 
and hears it addressing him in his own familiar tongue, 
his conscience responds, " This is the word of God." 
The learned man who produces a translation of the Bi- 
ble into a new language, is a greater benefactor to man- 
kind than the prince who founds an empire. — The " in- 
" corruptible seed of the word of God" can nevtr die. 
Aftei ages have revolved, it is still producing new ac- 
cessions to truth and human happiness. 

So diligent in his studies was this eminent missionary, 
that before the year 1719, he had completed a translation 
of the whole Scriptures into the Tamul tongue ;f and 

* Niecampius, Hist. Miss. Orient, page 190. [This Address was de- 
livered by William Nicols, A. M. Rector of Stockport, a member of 
the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge It is printed in the Ac- 
count of the Danish Mission to the East Indies, London, 1718, and there 
dated " December 29, 1715." Amer. Edit."] 

•j- Like Wickcliffe's Bible, it has been the father of many versions. 
[Mr. Ziegenbalgh, in one of his Letters, having mentioned Madras, Viza- 
gapatnam, Bombay, &c. observes, " In all these places the Bamuhan (Ta- 
" mul) is the current language, and consequently the fittest vehicle for 
" conveying the Christian Truths to these people." The whole New Testa- 
ment, in the Damulian language, was printed for the benefit of the Mal- 
abarians, in 1714. A copy of this Version is in the Library of Harvard 
College. Amer, Edit.") 



61 



had also composed a grammar and dictionary of the 
sane language, which remain with us to this day. 

1 1. The peculiar interest taken by King George the 
First in this primary endeavour to evangelize the Hin- 
doos, will appear from the following letters addressed to 
the missionaries by his Majesty. 

M George by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, 
" France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. To 
" the Reverend and Learned Bartholomew Ziegenbal- 
" gius, and John Ernest Grundlerus, Missionaries at 
" Tranquebar in the Fast Indies. 

" REVEREND AND BELOVED, 

" Your letters dated the 20th of January of the pres- 
* e ent year, were most welcome to us ; not only because 
" the work undertaken by you of converting the heathen 
" to the Christian faith, doth by the grace of God pros- 
" per, but also because that in this our kingdom such a 
" laudable zeal for the promotion of the Gospel prevails. 

" We pray you may be endued with health and 
" strength of body, that you may long continue to fulfil 
" your ministry with good success ; of which, as we 
44 shall be rejoiced to hear, so you will always find us 
" ready to succour you in whatever may tend to promote 
u your work and to excite your zeal. We assure you 
" of the continuance of our royal favour."* 

** Given at our Palace of Hampton- ) 

"Court the 23d August, A.D.T u GEORGE R. 
" 1717, in the 4th Year of our i 

« Reign. J " Hattorf.' 5 

12. The King continued to cherish with much solici- 
tude the interests of the mission after the death of Zie- 
genbalgius ; and in ten years from the date of the fore- 
going letter, a second was addressed to the members of 
the mission, by his Majesty. 

* Niecampius, Hist. Miss page 212. £ By a letter from the Danish 
missionaries to the king- of Great Britain, written at Tranquebar January % 
1717, it appears, that Ziegenbalgius was at London the preceding year, 
and gave his majesty " a verbal account of the whole undertaking." 
Aimr. JSdit.J 



62 



u REVEREND AND BELOVED, 

^ From your letters, dated Tranquebar, the 12th 
u September, 1725, which some time since came to 
" hand, we received much pleasure ; since by them we 
" are informed not only of your zealous exertions in the 
" prosecution of the work committed to you, but also 
" of the happy success which hath hitherto attended it, 
" and which hath been graciously given of God. 

" We return you thanks for these accounts, and it 
" will be acceptable to us, if you continue to communi- 
" cate whatever shall occur in the progress of your mis- 
" sion. 

" In the mean time we pray you may enjoy strength 
" of body and mind for the long continuance of your la- 
" bours in this good work, to the glory of God, and the 
" promotion of Christianity among the heathens ; that 
" its perpetuity may not fail in generations to come."* 

ft Given at our Palace at St. James's,! 

« the 23cl February, 1727, in the t « GEORGE R." 
" I3th Year of our Reign. J 

13. The English nation will receive these letters 
(now sent back in the name of the Hindoos) with that 
reverence and affectionate regard, which are due to the 
memory of the royal author, considering them as a 
memorial of the nation's past concern for the welfare of 
the natives, and as a pledge of our future care. 

Providence hath been pleased to grant the prayer of 
the King, " that the work might not fail in generations 
" to come." After the first missionary Ziegenbalgius 
had finished his course, he was succeeded by other 
learned and zealous men ; and lastly, by the apostle of 
the East, the venerable Swartz, who, during the period 
of half a century,! has fulfilled a laborious ministry 
among the natives of different provinces, and illuminated 
many a dark region with the light of the Gospel. 

14. The pious exertions of the King for the diffusion 
of religious blessings amongst the natives of India, 
seem to have been rewarded by heaven in temporal 



* Niecampius, page 284. 



f From 1749 to 1800. 



63 



blessings to his own subjects in their intercourse with 
the East; by leading them onward in a continued 
course of prosperity and glory, and by granting to 
them at length the entire dominion of the peninsula of 
India. 

15. But these royal epistles are not the only evangelic 
documents of high authority in the hands of the Hin- 
doos. They are in possession of letters written by the 
Archbishop of Canterbury, of the same reign ;* who 
supported the interests of the mission with unexampled 
liberality, affection, and zeal. These letters, which are 
many in number, are all written in the Latin language. 
The following is a translation of his grace's first letter ; 
which appears to have been written by him as president 
of the " Society for promoting Christian Knowledge." 

44 To Bartholomew Ziegenbalgius and John Ernest Grun- 
44 dlerus, Preachers of the Christian Faith, on the coast 
44 of CoromandeL 

" As often as I behold your letters, reverend breth- 
" ren, addressed to the venerable Society instituted for 
" the promotion of the Gospel, whose chief honour and 
44 ornament ye are ; and as often as I contemplate the light 
44 of the Gospel either now first rising on the Indian na- 
ei tions, or after the intermission of some ages again re- 
" vived, and as it were restored to its inheritance ; I am 
44 constrained to magnify that singular goodness of God 
44 in visiting nations so remote ; and to account you, my 
" brethren, highly honoured, whose ministry it hath 
44 pleased Him to employ, in this pious work, to the gio- 
44 ry of His name and the salvation of so many millions 
44 of souls. 

44 Let others indulge in a ministry, if not idle, certain- 
44 ly less laborious, among Christians at home. Let 
44 them enjoy in the bosom of the church, titles and hon- 
44 ours, obtained without labour and without danger. 
44 Your praise it will be (a praise of endless duration on 
44 earth, and followed by a just recompense in heaven) 
44 to have laboured in the vineyard which yourselves 

* Archbishop Wake. 



64 



?i have planted ; to have declared the name of Christ, 
" where it was not known before ; and through much 
" peril and difficulty to have converted to the faith those, 
" among; whom ye afterwards fulfilled your ministry. 
" Your province therefore, brethren, your office, I place 
" before all dignities in the church. Let others be pon- 
" tiffs, patriarchs, or popes ; let them glitter in purple, 
u in scarlet, or in gold ; let them seek the admiration of 
" the wondering multitude, and receive obeisance on the 
" bended knee. Ye have acquired a better name than 
" they, and a more sacred fame. And when that day 
" shall arrive when the chief Shepherd shall give to ev- 
" ery man according to his work, a greater reward shall 
" be adjudged to you. Admitted into the glorious so- 
" ciety of the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, ye, 
" with them shall shine, like the sun among the lesser 
" stars, in the kingdom of your Father, for ever. 

" Since then so great honour is now given unto you 
" by all competent judges on earth, and since so great a 
" reward is laid up for you in heaven ; go forth with 
" alacrity to that work, to the which the Holy Ghost 
" hath called you. God hath already given to you an 
u illustrious pledge of his favour, an increase not to be 
u expected without the aid of his grace. Ye have be- 
" gun happily, proceed with spirit. He, who hath car- 
" ried you safely through the dangers of the seas to such 
" a remote country, and who hath given you favour in the 
" eyes of those whose countenance ye most desired ; 
" He who hath so liberally and unexpectedly ministered 
" unto your wants, and who doth now daily add mem- 
" bers to your church ; He will continue to prosper 
" your endeavours, and will subdue unto himself, by 
" your means, the whole continent of Oriental India. 

" O happy men ! who, standing before the tribunal 
" of Christ, shall exhibit so many nations converted to 
" his faith by your preaching ; happy men ! to whom it 
" shall be given to say before the assembly of the whole 
" human race, * Behold us, O Lord, and the children 
w ' whom thou hast given us happy men ! who being 
" justified by the Saviour, shall receive in that day the 
" reward of your labours, and also shall hear that glori- 



65 



u ous encomium ; * Well done, good and faithful seiv 
" c vants, enter ye into the joy of your Lord.' 

" May Almighty God graciously favour you and your 
" labours in all things. * May he send to your aid fel- 
u low- labourers, such and so many as ye wish. May 
" he increase the bounds of your churches* May he 
" open the hearts of those to whom ye preach the Gos- 
" pel of Christ ; that hearing you, they may receive 
" life-giving faith. May he protect you and yours from 
" all evils and dangers. And when ye arrive (may it 
" be late) at the end of your course, may the same God, 
" who hath called you to this work of the Gospel and 
" hath preserved you in it, grant to you the reward of 
" your labour, — an incorruptible crown of glory.* 

" These are the fervent wishes and prayers of, 
Venerable brethren, 

" Your most faithful fellow servant in Christ, 



Such was the primary archiepiscopal charge to the 
Protestant missionaries, who came to India for the con- 
version of the heathen. Where shall we look, in these 
days, for a more perfect model of Christian eloquence ; 
animated by purer sentiments of scriptural truth, by 
greater elevation of thought, or by a sublimer piety If 

* Niecampius, page 215. 

f Before this letter reached India, Ziegenbalgius had departed this 
life at the early age of thirty six years. The expressions of the archbishop 
corresponded in many particulars with the circumstances of his death. Per- 
ceiving that his last hour was at hand, he called his Hindoo congregation 
and partook of the holy Communion, " amidst ardent prayers and many 
•* tears and afterwards addressing them in a solemn manner, took an 
affectionate leave of them. Being reminded by them of the faith of the 
Apostle of the Gentiles at the prospect of death, who " desired to be with 
" Christ, as being far better," he said, " That also is my desire. Washed 
" from my sins in his blood, and clothed with his righteousness, I shall en- 
" ter into his heavenly kingdom. I pray that the things which I have 
" spoken may be fruitful. Throughout this whole warfare, I have entirely 
" endured by Christ ; and now I can say through him," — " I have fought 
" the good fight ; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith. Hence- 
" forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness," which words hav- 
ing spoken, he desired that the Hindoo children about his bed, and the 
multitude filling the verandahs, and about the house, might sing the 



" From our Palace at Lam- 
" beth, January, a.d. 1719. 



;| " GULIELMUS CANT. 



9 



66 



16. By the letters of the King, and his long continued 

care of the mission, and by the frequent admonitory 
epistles of the archbishop, an incalculable sum of happi- 
ness has been dispensed in India. The episcopal charg- 
es infused spirit into the mission abroad ; and the coun- 
tenance of majesty cherished a zeal in the Society at 
home, which has not abated to this day. From the 
commencement of the mission in 1705, to the present 
year, 1805, it is computed that eighty thousand natives 
of all casts in one district alone, forsaking their idols and 
their vices, have been added to the Christian church. 

17. In the above letter of the archbishop, there is 
found a prophecy, " That Christ shall subdue unto him- 
" self, through our means, the whole continent of Ori- 
" ental India." it is certainly not unbecoming our ra- 
tional principles, nor inconsistent with the language or 
spirit of the religion we profess, to look for the fulfilment 
of that prophecy. 

18. Many circumstances concur to make it probable, 
that the light of Revelation is now dawning on the Asiatic 
world. How grateful must it be to the pious mind to 
contemplate, that while infidelity has been extending it- 
self in the regions of science and learning, the divine 
dispensation should have ordered that the knowledge 
of the true God should flow into heathen lands ! 

Under the auspices of the college of Fort William, the 
Scriptures are in a course of translation into the languag- 
es of almost the " whole continent of Oriental India.' ' 
Could the royal patron of the Tamul Bible, who prayed 
" that the work might not fail in generations to come," 
have foreseen those streams of revealed truth, which are 
now issuing from this fountain, with what delight would 
he have hailed the arrival of the present asra of Indian 
administration. In this view, the Oriental college has 
been compared by one of our Hindoo poets, to a " flood 
" of light shooting through a dark cloud on a benighted 

hymn, beginning- " Jesus my Saviour Lord." Which when finished, he 
yielded up his spirit, amidst the rejoicings and lamentations of a great mul- 
titude ; some rejoicing at his triumphant death, and early entrance into 
glory. And others lamenting the early loss of their faithful apostle ; who 
had first brought the light of the Gospel to their dark region from the west- 
ern world. Niecampius, pag*e 217, and Annates Miss, page 20. 



67 



u land." Directed by it, the learned natives from every 
quarter of India, and from the parts beyond, from Per. 
sia and Arabia, come to the source of knowledge : they 
mark our principles, ponder the volume of inspiration, 
" and hear, every man in his own tongue, the wonderful 
" works of God." 

19. The importance of this Institution as the fountain 
of civilization to Asia, is happily displayed in a Speech 
in the Shanscrit language, pronounced by the Shanscrit 
teacher,* at our late public disputations. The transla- 
tion of this discourse (being the first in that language) 
we are induced to give entire ; not only from our defer- 
ence to the authority of the venerable speaker, who de- 
scribes, with much precision, the present state, true ob- 
ject, and certain consequences of this Institution ; but 
also, because the facts and reasoning contained in it bear 
the most auspicious reference to the various subjects 
which have been discussed in this Memoir. 

As Moderator of the Disputation, he addresses the 
student,f who had pronounced a declamation in the 
Shanscrit language : 



" It being a rule of our public disputations, that the 
Moderator should express before the assembly, his opin- 
ion of the proficiency of the student in the language in 
which he has spoken, it becomes my duty to declare my 
perfect approbation of the manner in which you have 
acquitted yourself, and to communicate to you the satis- 
faction with which the learned Pundits, your auditors, 
have listened to your correct pronunciation of the Shan- 
scrit tongue, 

" Four years have now elapsed since the commence- 

* The venerable Mr. Carey ; for many years past the Protestant mis- 
sionary in the North of India ; following the steps of the late Mr. Swartz 
in the South ; in Oriental and classical learning- his superior, and not infe- 
rior in laborious study and Christian zeal. Mr. Carey is author of a 
Grammar of the Shanscrit Language, 900 pages 4to ; of a Grammar of 
the Bengal Language ; of a Grammar in the Mahratta Language ; of a 
Translation of the Scriptures into the Bengal Language ; and of various 
other useful publications in Oriental literature. 

f Clotworthy Gowan, Esq. 



68 



ment of this Institution. During that period the popu- 
lar languages of India have been sedulously cultivated ; 
and are now fluently spoken. Last in order, because 
first in difficulty, appears the parent of all these dialects, 
the primitive Shanscrit ; as if to acknowledge her legiti- 
mate offspring, to confirm their affinity and relation to 
each other, and thereby to complete our system of Ori- 
ental study. 

" Considered as the source of the colloquial tongues, 
the utility of the Shanscrit language is evident ; but as 
containing numerous treatises on the religion, jurispru- 
dence, arts and sciences of the Hindoos, its importance 
is yet grtater ; especially to those to whom is commit- 
ted, by this government, the province of legislation for 
the natives ; in order that being conversant with the 
Hindoo writings, and capable of referring to the original 
authorities, they may propose, from time to time, the 
requisite modifications and improvements, in just ac- 
cordance with existing law and ancient institution. 

" Shanscrit learning, say the Brahmins, is like an ex- 
tensive forest, abounding with a great variety of beauti- 
ful foliage, splendid blossoms, and delicious fruits ; but 
surrounded by a strong and thorny fence, which prevents 
those who are desirous of plucking its fruits or flowers, 
from entering in. 

" The learned Jones, Wilkins, and others, broke 
down this opposing fence in several places ; but by the 
College of Fort William, a highway has been made in- 
to the midst of the wood ; and you, Sir, have entered 
thereby. 

" The successful study of the Shanscrit tongue will 
distinguish this fourth year of our Institution, and consti- 
tute it an aera in the progress of Eastern learning ; and 
you, Sir, have the honour of being the first to deliver a 
speech in that ancient and difficult language. The suc- 
cess that has attended you in the acquirement of other 
branches of Oriental literature, w ill enc jurage you to 
prosecute the study of this, as far as it may be useful in 
qualifying you for the faithful discharge of your duties 
in the public service, or may be subservient to your own 
reputation, in advancing the interests of useful learning.' * 



69 



[^Addressing his Excellency Marquis JFellesley, Governor 
General, Founder and Patron of the Institution^ 

" MY LORD, 

" It is just, that the language which has been first cul- 
tivated under your auspices, should primarily be employ* 
ed in gratefully acknowledging the benefit, and in speak- 
ing your praise. 

" This ancient language, which refused to disclose it- 
self to the former Governors of India, unlocks its treas- 
ures at your command, and enriches the world with the 
history, learning, and science of a distant age. 

" The rising importance of our Collegiate Institution 
has never been more clearly demonstrated than on the 
present occasion ; and thousands of the learned in dis- 
tant nations will exult in this triumph of literature. 

" What a singular exhibition has been this day pre- 
sented to us ! In presence of the supreme Governor of 
India, and of its most learned and illustrious characters 
Asiatic and European, an assembly is convened, in which 
no word of our native tongue is spoken, but public dis- 
course is maintained on interesting subjects, in the lan- 
guages of Asia. The colloquial Hindoostanee, the 
classic Persian, the commercial Bengalee, the learned 
Arabic, and the primaeval Shanscrit, are spoken fluently, 
after having been studied grammatically, by English 
youth. Did ever any university in Europe, or any lite- 
rary institution in any other age or country, exhibit a 
scene so interesting as this ! And what are the circum- 
stances of these youth ! They are not students who 
prosecute a dead language with uncertain purpose, im- 
pelled only by natural genius or love of fame. But hav- 
ing been appointed to the important offices of administer- 
ing the government of the country in which these lan- 
guages are spoken, they apply their acquisitions imme- 
diately to useful purposes ; in distributing justice to the 
inhabitants ; in transacting the business of the state, rev- 
enual and commercial ; and in maintaining official inter- 
course with the people, in their own tongue, and not, as 
hitherto, by means of an interpreter. 

" The acquisitions of our students may be appreciated 



70 



by their affording to the suppliant native immediate ac- 
cess to his principal ; and by their elucidating the spirit 
of the regulations of our government by oral communi- 
cation, and by written explanations, varied according to 
the circumstances and capacities of the people. 

" The acquisitions of our students are appreciated at 
this moment by those learned Asiatics, now present in 
this assembly, some of them strangers from distant prov- 
inces ; who wonder every man to hear in his own 
tongue, important subjects discussed, and new and no- 
ble principles asserted, by the youth of a foreign land. 

" The literary proceedings of this day amply repay all 
the solicitude, labour, and expense that have been be- 
stowed on this Institution. If the expense had been a 
thousand times greater, it would not have equalled the 
immensity of the advantage, moral and political, that 
will ensue. 

"I, now an old man, have lived for a long series of 
years among the Hindoos ; I have been in the habit of 
preaching to multitudes daily, of discoursing with the 
Brahmins on every subject, and of superintending schools 
for the instruction of the Hindoo youth. Their language 
is nearly as familiar to me as my own. This close in- 
tercourse with the natives for so long a period, and in 
different parts of our empire, has afforded me opportuni- 
ties of information not inferior to those which have hith- 
erto been presented to any other person. I may say in- 
deed that their manners, customs, habits, and sentiments, 
are as obvious to me, as if I was myself a native. And 
knowing them as I do, and hearing as I do, their daily 
observations on our government, character, and princi- 
ples, I am warranted to say, (and I deem it my duty to 
embrace the public opportunity now afforded me of say- 
ing it,) that the institution of this College was wanting to 
complete the happiness of the natives under our domin- 
ion ; for this Institution will break down that barrier (our 
ignorance of their language) which has ever opposed the 
influence of our laws and principles, and has despoiled 
our administration of its energy and effect. 

" Were, however, the Institution to cease from this 
moment, its salutary effects would yet remain. Good 



71 



has been done, which cannot be undone. Sources of 
useful knowledge, moral instruction, and political util- 
ity, have been opened to the natives of India, which can 
never be closed ; and their civil improvement, like the 
gradual civilization of our own country, will advance in 
progression, for ages to come. 

" One hundred original volumes in the Oriental lan- 
guages and literature, will preserve for ever in Asia, the 
name of the founder of this Institution. Nor are the ex- 
amples frequent of a renown, possessing such utility for 
its basis, or pervading such a vast portion of the habita- 
ble globe. My Lord, you have raised a monument of 
fame, which no length of time, or reverse of fortune, is 
able to destroy ; not chiefly because it is inscribed with 
Mahratta and Mysore, with the trophies of war, and the 
emblems of victory ; but because there are inscribed on 
it the names of those learned youth, who have obtained 
degrees of honour for high proficiency in the Oriental 
tongues. 

" These youth will rise in regular succession to the 
government of this country. They will extend the do- 
main of British civilization, security, and happiness, by 
enlarging the bounds of Oriental literature, and thereby 
diffusing the spirit of Christian principles throughout the 
nations of Asia. These youth, who have lived so long 
amongst us, whose unwearied application to their studies 
we have all witnessed, whose moral and exemplary con- 
duct has, in so solemn a manner, been publicly declared 
before this august assembly, on this day ; and who, at the 
moment of entering on the public service, enjoy the fame 
of possessing qualities (rarely combined) constituting a 
reputation of threefold strength for public men, genius, 
industry, and virtue ; these illustrious scholars, my 
Lord, the pride of their country, and the pillars of this 
empire, will record your name in many a language, and 
secure your fame for ever. Your fame is already re- 
corded in their hearts. The whole body of youth of 
this service hail you as their father and their friend. 
Your honour will ever be safe in their hands. No revo- 
lution of opinion, or change of circumstances, can rob 



72 



you of the solid glory derived from the humane, just^ 
liberal, and magnanimous principles, which have been 
embodied by your administration. 

" To whatever situation the course of future events 
may call you, the youth of this service will ever remain 
the pledges of the wisdom and purity of your govern- 
ment. Your evening of life will be constantly cheered 
with new testimonies of their reverence and affection ; 
with new proofs of the advantages of the education you 
have afforded them ; and with a demonstration of the 
numerous benefits, moral, religious, and political, result- 
ing from this Institution ; — benefits which will consoli- 
date the happiness of millions in Asia, with the glory and 
welfare of our country."* 

* See Primitiae Orientales, Vol. III. page 111. [The preceding- chap- 
ter has given so very concise an account of th? Protestant Mission in India, 
that the reader may be gratified with a few additional sketches of it. The 
king of Denmark early settled on the missionaries 2000 crowns a year, pay- 
able from the post office, to defray the necessary charges of the mission ; 
and this sum was often doubled by extraordinary presents. Germany also 
sent large sums toward the support of the mission ; but the greatest contri- 
butions came from England. From the year 1709, the Society for Promot- 
ing Christian Knowledge very liberally assisted it ; and in 1713, the sum 
sent from England amounted to £1194 sterling. From that time England 
continued to assist the mission of Tranquebar,* and alone sustained the mis- 
sions of Madras and St. David. In 1715 a college was erected at Copenha- 
gen by the king of Denmark, for facilitating and enlarging the work of the 
Mission in the East Indies. The very worthy superintendant Ziegenbalgius, 
died February 25, 1719 ; and Mr. Grundler, his faithful assistant, survived 
him but a year. The mission of Tranquebar was still supported ; and in 
1742 it was under the direction of 8 missionaries, 2 national priests, 3 cat- 
echists of the first order, beside those of an inferior rank, with a proportion- 
al number of assistants.. It was but seven years after, that the venerable 
Swartz commenced his mission, which continued until the close of the cen- 
tury. Amer. Edit."] 

* This was the Danish mission ; and the town (~ mentioned p. 59 J near 
which the church was built, was Tranquebar. 



73 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

RECORD of the superstitious Practices of the Hindoos, noxv 
subsisting, which inflict immediate Death, or tend to Death; 
deducted from the Evidence of the Pundits and Learned Brah- 
mins in the College of Fort William. 



I. 

THE OFFERING OF CHILDREN TO GUNGA.* 

The natives of Hindoostan, particularly the inhabitants of Oris- 
sa, and of the eastern parts of Bengal, sometimes make offerings 
of their children to the goddess Gunga. 

When a woman, who has been long married, has no child, she 
and her husband make a vow to the goddess Gunga, " That if she 
" will bestow on them the blessing of children, they will devote 
" to her their first born" If, after this vow, they have a child or 
children, the first born is preserved, till they have a convenient 
opportunity of returning to the river at the period of assembling at 
the holy places. They then take the child with them ; and at the 
time of bathing, it is encouraged to walk into deep water, till it is 
carried away by the stream. If it be unwilling to go forward, it 
is pushed off by its parents. Sometimes a stranger attends, and 
catches the perishing infant, and brings it up as his own ; but if 
no such person happen to be near* it is infallibly drowned, being 
deserted by the parents the moment it floats in the river. 

This species of human sacrifice is publicly committed atGunga 
Saugor, in the last day of Pous ; and on the day of full moon in 
Kartic. At Bydyabatee, Trivenee, Nuddeea, Agradeep, and other 
places accounted holy, it is committed on the 13th day ot the 
dark fortnight of the moon Chytra, and on the 10th of the bright 
fortnight in Jystha. 

All the Pundits declare that this practice is not commanded in 
any Shaster.f 

* The river Ganges. 

f This practice is now abolished by regulation of government. See 
Appendix C. 

10 



74 



II. 

\ 

KAMYA MORON, OR VOLUNTARY DEATH. 

1 . When a person is in distress, or has incurred the contempt 
of his society ; and often when ihere is no other cause than his 
belief that it is meritorious to die in the river Gunga, he forms 
the resolution of parting with life in the sacred stream. 

2. Such persons, at the times mentioned in the preceding arti- 
cle, go to the holy places, where many thousands of people are 
assembled for the purpose of sacred ablution. Some oi them 
abstain from food, that life may depart from them in the holy 
place : but the greater number drown themselves in the presence 
of the surrounding multitude. Their children and other relations 
generally attend them. It is not uncommon for a father to be 
pushed again into the river by his sons, if he attempt to swim back 
to land. 

3. At Saugor it is accounted a propitious sign if the person be 
soon seized by a shark or a crocodile ; but his future happiness is 
considered doubtful if he stay long in the water without being 
destroyed* 

4. The only passage in the Shasters which has been submitted 
as countenancing this suicide is the following : " If a person be 
" afflicted with an incurable disease, so painful that it cannot be 
" borne, he is permitted to throw himself from a precipice, or to 
" drown himself in the river." 

5. During the Pooja of the Rutt Jattra, some devote themselves 
to death by falling under the wheels of a heavy car or wooden 
tower, containing their gods. At Jaggernaut they sometimes lie 
down in the track of this machine a few hours before its an ival, 
and taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death asleep. 

III. 

EXPOSING OF CHILDREN. 

This is a custom not commanded in any of the Shasters, and is 
wholly confined to the lower classes. 

If a child refuse the mother's milk, whether from sickness or 
from any other cause, it is supposed to be under the influence of 
an evil spirit. In this case the babe is put into a basket and hung 
up in a tree for three days. It generally happens that before the 
expiration of that time the infant is dead ; being destroyed by ants, 
or by birds of prey. If it be alive at the end of the three days, it 
is taken home, and means are used to preserve its life. 

* The sharks and alligators are numerous at this place, particularly at 
the time of the annual festival, owing, it is supposed, to the human prey 
devoted to them from time immemorial. 



75 



IV. 

DESTROYING FEMALE INFANTS. 

This practice is common among a race of Hindoos called Raj- 
poots. Without alleging any other reason than the difficulty of 
providing for daughters in marriage, the mothers starve their 
female infants to death. in some places not one half of the fe- 
males are permitted to live.* 

V. 

IMMERSION OF SICK PERSONS IN THE RIVER. 

When a sick person (particularly if he be aged) is supposed 
not to be iikeiy to recover, he is conveyed to the river, in which 
the lower half of his body is immersed. Waier is copiously- 
poured into his mouth ; and he seldom survives the operation 
many hours. 

VI. 

THE SAHAMORON, OR THE BURNING OF WIDOWS WITH 
THEIR DECEASED HUSBANDS. 

1. This practice is common in a!l parts of Hindoostan,but it is 
more frequent on the banks of the Ganges. 

It is usual for the woman to burn with her husband's corpse. 
But there is a cast called Jogees, who bury their dead. The wo- 
men of this cast bury themselves alive with their husbands. 

2. From the number of burnings and buryirgs in a given time, 
within the compass of a few districts, it was calculated by the late 
le 'tied Mr. William Cnambers, that the widows who perish by 
self-devotement in the northern provinces of Hindoostan alone, 
are not less than ten thousand annually. This calculation is coun- 
tenanced by the number of burnings within thirty miles round 
Calcutta during the period of the last six months, which, by ac- 
count taken, is one hundred and sixteen t 

3. The usual mode of performing the rite of burning is the 
following : 

When the husband is dead, the widow, if she intend to burn, 
immediately declares her intention ; and soon after goes to the 
river side, where the corpse of her husband is laid. The Brah- 

* Lord Teignmouth relates, that this infanticide is practised on the 
frontiers of Juanpore, a district of the province of Benares ; an 1 at another 
place within the same province. Asiatic Res. Vol. IV. page 338 

See also Memoirs of George Thomas, by Captain Franklin, page 100. 

| See Appendix D. 



76 



mins and common people assemble. The pile being erected, the 

de. t i body is placed upon it. After a few ceremonies (differing 
in different districts) the widow lays herself down by the side of 
the corpse. Combustible materials are thrown upon the pile, 
which is pressed down by bamboo levers. The heir at law then 
kindles tne fire The surrounding multitude set up a shout, 
which is neces&ary to prevent her cry from being heard, if she 
should make any ; and the life of tne victim is soon ended. 

4. The following circumstances contribute to the frequency of 
this act; 

When a husband dies, the wife has the choice of burning with 
him, or of forsaking the comforts of life. She must put on no 
ornaments, must be clorhed in sordid apparel, and must eat but 
one scanty meal in the day. 

If she attempt to escape from the fire, any person of the very- 
lowest cast may seize and carry her home as his own property. 
But in this case her relations generally bring her forcibly back to 
the fire, to prevent the disgrace of her being carrieu away. 

5 The laws of the Hindoos concerning the female sacrifice, 
are collected in a book called Sooddhee Sungraha. 

The passages in that book whicn relate to the principle or act 
of burning, are here subjoined, with the names of the original 
Shasters from which they are collected. 

Angeera. " The virtuous wife who burns herself with her 
" husb. nd is like to Aroon hutee, If she be w ithin a day's jour- 
" ney of the place w here he dies, the burning of the corpse shall 
" be deferred a day, to wait for her arrival." 

Brahma Pooran. " If the husband die in a distant country, 
" the wife may take any of his f fferts ; for instance a sandal, and 
" binding it on her thigh, burn with it on a separate fire " 

Reek V ed. " If a woman thus burn with her husband it is not 
" suicide, and the relations shall be unclean three days on account 
" of her death ; after which the Shraddhee must be performed." 

Vishnoo Pooran. " If a person be poteet, (fallen or sinful,) all 
« his sins will be blotted out by his wire's dying with him in the 
" fire, after a proper atonement has been made " 

" A pregnant woman is forbidden to burr., and also the woman 
" who is in her times ; or who has a young child, unless some 
£< proper person undertake the education of the child. 

" If a woman ascend the pile and should afterwards decline to 
" burn through love of life or earthly things, she must perform 
" the penance Prazapotyo,* and will then be free from her sin." 

Goutam. " A Hrahmanee can only die with her husband, and 
" not in a separate fire. The eldest son or near relation must set 
« fire to the pile." 

On ccmparing these passages with the present practice of 
burning women in Hindoostan, little similarity will be found 

* A rigid fast for some days. 



77 



either in principle, or in ceremonial. In many particulars of the 
existing custom, the Hindoos directly violate the laws of their 
religion. 

NOTE BY THE PUNDITS. 

w There may be some circumstantial differences of a local na- 
" ture in the above mentioned customs ; but the general practice 
f corresponds with what is here written." 

B. 

NOTES on the Practicability of abolishing those Practices of 
the Hindoos, which inflict immediate Death, or tend to pro- 
duce Death ; collated from the Information and Suggestions 
of the Pundits and learned Branmins in the College of Fort 
William. 

1. It is an attribute of the British government in In^ia that it 
tolerates all religious opinions, and forms of worship, and protects 
those who profess them, as iong as they conduct themselves in an 
orderly and peaceable manner. 

2. If murder, robbery, or adultery be committed under the 
name of religion, the persons guilty of such actions may be prose- 
cuted for civil crimes. No sanction of religion can save the of- 
fender from the punishment due for his violation of the laws, and 
for his offence against humanity and social happiness. 

" The principle asserted in the foregoing paragraphs is acknow- 
" ledged by the Pundits." 

3. Death is inflicted, and sanguinary rites are practised, by the 
Hindoos under the name of an ancient custom, or of a religious 
duty. 

I. Children are sacrificed by their parents to Gunga; 
IT. They are hung up on trees in baskets and devoured by birds 
of prey 

III. Female infants among the Rajpoot Hindoos, are destroyed 
by starving. 

IV. Men and women drown themselves in the Ganges, at the 
places reputed holy. 

V. Tney devote themselves to death by falling under the 
wheels of the machine which carries their gods.* 

VI. Widows are burned alive with their deceased husbands. 

VII. Widows are buried alive with their deceased husbands. 

VIII. Persons supposed to be dying, are immersed in the 
river. 

IX. The inhuman practice of swinging with hooks passed 
through the integuments of the back, called Peet Phooron. 

* This is practised chiefly at Jag-gernaut, at the Pooja of the Rutt Jattra. 



78 



X. The practice of dancing with threads, canes, or bamboos 
passed through the sides, called the Parswoban. 

XI. The passing spits or other instruments of iron through the 
tongue or forehead, called Zuhba Phooron. 

XII. The falling from a height on sharp instruments, called 
Pat Bhanga. 

XIII. The practice of swinging over a fire, called Ihool Sun- 
yoss. 

XIV The practice of climbing naked a tree armed with horrid 
thorns,* called Kanta Bhanga. 

And all the other ceremonies which are performed on the last 
five days of the month Chytra, under the denomination of the 
Chorruk Pooja are often the occasion of death ; and always tend 
to brutalize the minds both of actors and spectators. 

To these if we add self-torture, which is practised in the most 
disgusting and unnatural forms, some idea may be formed of the 
present effects of the Hindoo superstition. 

4. None of these practices are sanctioned in the books, which 
the Hindoos account divine, except the three following ; the 
Kamya Moron, or voluntary devotement ; Sahamoron, or burning 
of widows ; and the immersion of half the body ot a dying person 
in the river, And these are not commanded. These actions are 
generally performed in consequence of vows, or in compliance 
with custom. But all vows are optional, and the committing 
murder in consequence of a vow, does not lessen the guilt of it. 
On the contrary, a vow to commit such an action, is a ciime, 
which deserves punishment. " This principle is conceded by the 
« Pundits." 

5. Most persons of erudition and influence among the Hindoos 
reprobate the observance of cruel cr painful rites not appointed by 
the Shasters. 

When these persons have been asked, why they did not exert 
their influence to prevent such irregularities, they have always 
answered : w That they have no power; that the Hindoo rajahs 
u formerly did interfere and punish those who were guilty of 
" breaking the laws of the Shasters." They allege particularly 
that, in the Sahamoron, or burning of widows, " no influence of 
" the Brahmins or of relations should be permitted, and that such 
" influence when suspected is a subject for civil inquiry ; that 
" the woman should come of her own accord, and lay herself on 
w the pile after it is kindled ; that no bamboos or ropes should 
" bind her down ; and that if after ascending the pile her resolu- 
" tion should fail her, she should be subject to no inconvenience 
" or disgrace, more than the appointed atonement,! or that, for 

* The Khujoor tree. 

f A rig-id fast ; but which may be commuted for a gift to a Brahmin of 
a cow and a calf ; or of five kouns of cowries. 



79 



" which it may be commuted ; and that every deviation from the 

" strict letier of the Lw, is to be accounted murder." 

The uninformed part of the community assent to the propriety 
of the common practice ; and there can be little doubt that family 
pride in many cases, Lights tne funeral pile. But the opinion of 
the learned and more respectable part of their society must have 
the greatest weight ; and would be sufficient to vindicate any salu- 
tary measure which government might adopt. To reduce this 
rite to the strict bounds allowed it in the Shasters, would do much 
towards its total abolition. 

6 The immersion of half the body of a person supposed to be 
dying, in the water of the Ganges, must often, in acute diseases, 
occasion premature death. 

What has been observed respecting the Sahamoron, will equal- 
ly apply to this practice. It is optional. Though very common 
on the banks of the Ganges, it is reprobated in many places at a 
distance from it. The abolition of it would not be more difficult 
than that of the Sahamoron, 

c. 

A. D. 1802. Regulation VI. 

A regulation for preventing the sacrifice of children at 
Saugor and other places. Passed by the Governor General in 
council, on the 20th August, 1802. 

" It has been represented to the Governor General in council, 
that a criminal and inhuman practice of sacrificing children, by 
exposing them to be drowned, or devoured by sharks, prevails at 
the island of Saugor, and at Bansbaryah, Chaugdah, and other 
places on the Ganges. At Saugor especially, such sacrifices have 
been made at fixed periods, namely, the day of full moon in No- 
vember and in January ; at which time also grown persons have 
devoted themselves to a similar death. Children, thrown into the 
sea at Saugor have not been generally rescued, as is stated to be 
the custom at other places ; but the sacrifice has, on the contrary, 
been completely effected, with circumstances of peculiar atrocity 
in some instances. This practice, which is represented to arise 
from superstitious vows, is not sanctioned by the Hindoo law, nor 
countenanced by the religious orders, or by the people at large ; 
nor was it at any time authorized by the Hindoo or Mahornedan 
governments of India. The persons concerned in the perpetration 
of such crimes are therefore clearly liable to punishment ; and the 
pie ; of custom would be inadmissible in excuse of the offence. 
But for the more effectual prevention of so inhuman a practice, 
the Governor General in council has enacted the following regu- 
lation, to be in force from the promulgation of it, in the provinces 
of Bengal, Behar, Orissa, and Benares." 



80 



Then follows the clause declaring the practice to be murder* 
punishable with death. 



D. 



REPORT of the number of Women who have burned them- 
selves on the Funeral Pile of their Husbands within thirty 
Miles round Calcutta, from the Beginning of Bysakh ( 15th 
April ) to the End of Aswtn (\5th October J, 1804. 



FROM GURRIA TO BARRY PORE. 



Bhurut Bazar 

Rajepore 

Muluncha 

Barry pore - 

Maeenugur 

Lasun 

Kesubpore - 
Mahamaya 
Puschim Bahine - 
Bural 

Dliopa Gach, hi - 



FROM TOLLEY S NULLA MOUTH 
TO GURRIA. 

Mouth of Tolley's nulla - 6 

Kooli Bazar - - 1 

Kidderpore bridge - - 1 

Jeerat bridge - - 2 

Near the hospital - - 1 

Watson's Ghat - 1 

Bhobaneepore 2 

Kalee Ghat - - - 6 

Tolley Gunge - - - 2 

Naktulla 1 

ByshnubGhat - - - 2 

EtalGhat - 2 

Russapagli - 1 

KootGhat - 2 

Gurria - - - - 1 

Bassdhuni 2 

Dadpore and near it - 3 

FROM BARRYPORE TO BUHI- 
PORE. 



Moosilpore 

Bishnoopoor 

Balia 

Gunga Dwar 
Gochurun Ghat 
Telia 



- 1 
3 
1 

1 

2 
1 



FROM SEEBPORE TO BALEEA 

Khooter Saer 1 

Sulkea - - - 3 

Ghoosri Chokey Ghat - 2 

Balee - 3 

Seebpore I 

FROM BALEE TO BYDYABATEE. 



Serampore 

Bydyabateee 

Dhon-nagur 



FROM BYDYABATEE TO BASSBA- 
REEA. 



Chundun-nagur 
Chinchura 
Saha Gunge 
Bassbareea 
Bhudreshwur 



3 

- 2 

- 2 
2 

- 1 



FROM CALCUTTA TO BURAHNU- 
GUR. 

Soorer Bazar 



Burahnugur 

Kashipore 

Chitpore 



Joynagur 



81 



EROM BUR AHNAGUR TO CHA- 
NOK. 

Dukhineshwar 2 
Agurpara - - -4 

Areeadoha 3 

Chanuk - - 1 

Sookchur - 1 

Khurdoha and near it - 2 



FROM CHANOK TO KACHRAP- 
ARA. 

Eeshapore - - 2 
Koomorhatta 2 
Kachrapara - - - 3 
Bhatpara 1 

Total (in six months) 116 



The above Report was made by persons of the Hindoo cast, de- 
puted for that purpose. They were ten in number, and were sta- 
tioned at different places during the whole period of the six 
months. They gave in their account monthly, specifying the 
name and place ; so that every individual instance was subject to 
investigation immediately after its occurrence. 

2. By an account taken in 1803, the number of women sacrific- 
ed during that year within thirty miles round Calcutta was two 
hundred and seventy-five. 

3. In the foregoing Report of six months in 1804, it will be per- 
ceived that no account was taken of burnings in a district to the 
west of Calcutta, nor further than twenty miles in some other di- 
rections ; so that the whole number of burnings within thirty miles 
round Calcutta, must have been considerably greater than is here 
stated. 

4. The average number (according to the above Report) of wo- 
men burning within thirty miles round Calcutta, is nearly twenty 
per month. 

5. One of the above was a girl of eleven years of age. Instances 
sometimes occur of children of ten years old burning with their 
husbands.* 

6. In November of last year two women, widows of one 
Brahmin, burnt themselves with his body at Barnagore, within 
two miles of Calcutta. 

7. About the same time a woman burnt herself at Kalee Ghat, 
with the body of a man, who was not her husband. The man's 
name was Toteram Doss. The woman was a Joginee of Seeb- 
pore. 

8. In the province of Orissa, now subject to the British govern* 
ment,it is a custom, that when the wife of a man of rank burns, all 
his concubines must burn with her. In the event of their refusal, 
they are dragged forcibly to the place and pushed with bamboos 
into Xhejiaming pit. It is usual there to dig a pit, instead of rais- 
ing a pile The truth of this fact (noticed by some writers) is at- 
tested by Pundits now in the College of Fort William, natives of 
that province. 

* They often marry at the age of nine, 



82 



E. 

Religious Mendicants. 

The Hindoo Shasters commend a man if he retire from the 
world, and, devoting himself to solitude, or to pilgrimage, live on 
the spontaneous productions of the earth, or by mendicity. This 
principle, operating on an ignorant and superstitious people, has 
in the revolution of ages produced the consequence which might 
be expected. The whole of Hindoostan swarms with lay-beggars. 
In some districts there are armies of beggars. They consist, in 
general, of thieves and insolvent debtors ; and are excessively ig- 
norant, and notoriously debauched. 

This begging system is felt as a public evil by the industrious 
part of the community, who, from fear of the despotic power and 
awful curse of this fraternity, dare not withhold their contribu- 
tions. 

These beggars, often coming into large towns naked) outrage 
decency, and seem to set Christian police at defiance. 

The Pundits consider these mendicants as the public and licens- 
ed corrupters of the morals of the people ; and they affirm that 
the suppression of the order would greatly contribute to the civil 
improvement of the natives of Hindoostan. 

F. 

Different Hindoo Sects in Bengal. 

T he discrepancy of religious belief in the province of Bengal 
alone (which province has been accounted the stronghold of the 
Brahminicai superstition,) will illustrate the general state of the 
other provinces of Hindoostan. 

In Bengal there are five classes of natives who are adverse to 
the Brahminicai system ; and who may be termed Dissenters 
from the Hindoo practices and religion. 

1. The followers of Chytunya of Nucldeea. This philosopher 
taught that there is no distinction of cast ; a tenet which alone 
undermines the whole system of Hinduism. 

2. The followers of Ram Doolal, who is now living at Ghose- 
para, near Sookhsagur. These are computed to be twenty thou- 
sand in number, and are composed of every denomination of Hin- 
doos and Mussulmans, They profess a kind of Deism. Of this 
sect some have already embraced the Christian faith. 

3. A third great body were lately followers of Shiveram Doss, 
at Jugutanundu Katee. This man, who is yet alive, was believed 
to be a partial incarnation of the Deity. They have addressed 



83 



several letters to the Protestant missionaries, and are ready to ab- 
jure idol-worship and other errors. 

4. Another class of Hindoo sceptics is to be found at Lokep- 
hool in Jessore. Their representative at this time is Neeloo, 
surnamed the Sophist. Some of these have repeatedly visited 
the missionaries, and invited them to go amongst them. They 
have received the Bible and other religious books in the Bengalee 
language, which they now 7 teach in a school established for the 
instruction of children. 

5. The fifth class, which is very numerous, profess respect for 
the opinions of a leader named Amoonee Sa, residing in Muhum- 
mua Shawl. They have lately sent two deputations to the Chris- 
tian missionaries, requesting a conference with them on the doc- 
trines of the Gospel. 

Now, " what forbids that these men should be baptized ?" We 
do not offer them a religion, but the people themselves, awake to 
their own concerns, come to us and ask ior it. What po icy, 
■what philosophy is that, which forbids our granting their request ? 
It must certainly have b^en an ignorance of facts which has so 
long kept alive amongst us the sentiment, that religion is not to 
be mentioned to the nativ s. 

That which prevents the sects above mentioned from renounc- 
ing (even without ou: aid) all connection with Hincoos or Mus^ 
sulnsans, is the want of precedent in the North of India of a com- 
munity of native Christians, enjoying political consequence, as in 
the South. The ignorance of the people is so great, that they 
doubt whether their civil liberties are equally secure to them un- 
der the denomination of Christian, as under that of Hindoo or 
Mussulman ; and they do not understand that we have yet recog- 
nised in our code of native law, any other sect than that of Hindoo 
and Mussulman.* 

* [The opinion of Rev. George Lewis, chaplain at Fort St. George in 
1712, was decidedly in favour of the Protestant Mission. His local situa- 
tion, unconnected as he was with any mission, entitks his judgment to respect. 
" The Missionaries at Tranquebar ought and must be encouraged. It is 

" the first attempt the Protestants ever have made in that kind As to 

" converting the Natives in the dominions o the Rajahs, and the great Mo- 
"gut, I believe it may be done in either without notice taken, provided 
" we do not sound a trumpet before us. In the Mogul's dominions, eight 

parts' ,n ten, in most of the provinces, are Gentoos, and he never troubles 
" his head what opinion they embrace. But to tamper with his Mussulmen 
" is not s^fe. — But to give you my sentiments in the matter ; 1 think we 
•* ought to begin at home : for there are thousands of people, 1 ma\ say 
" some hundreds of thousands, who live in the settlements, and under the 
«« jurisdiction of the Honourable Company, at Bombay, Fort St. David, Fort 
" St George, Calecuta in Bengali, on the West Coast, &c who may be con- 
" verted to Christianity without interfering with any country government 
"whatsoever" What additional strength "has this argument received by 
the vast accession of territory and population to the British dominions in the 
East, 'during the last century ! Nearly twenty years ago, Sir W illiam Jones 
gave rt as his judgment, founded on an actual enumeration in one coliector- 
ship, " that in all India there cannot be fewer than thirty millions of 

black British subjects." Amer. Edit.'] 



84 



G. 

Ancient Civilization of India. 

The constant reference of some authors to what is termed the 
ancient civ lization of the Hindoos, gives currency to an opinion 
in Europe, that the natives of India are yet in an improved state 
of society . 

It is probable that the Hindoos were once a civilized people, in 
the sense in which the ancient Chaldeans and ancient Egyptians 
are said to have been civilized. The result of the most accurate 
researches on this subject, appears to be the following. 

From the plains o f Shinar, at the time of the dispersion, some 
tribes migrated toward the East to India, and some toward the 
West, to Egypt, while others remained in Chaldea. At an early 
period, we read of the " wisdom and learning of the Egyptians," 
and of the Chaldeans ; and it is probable that the " wisdom and 
" learning" of the Hindoos were the same in degree, at the same 
period of time. In the mean while patriarchal tradition (which had 
accompanied the different tribes at the beginning) pervaded the 
mythology of all. 

It may be presumed further, that the systems of the Hindoos 
would remain longer unaltered with them, by reason of their re- 
mote and insulated situation ; from which circumstance also, their 
writings would be more easily preserved. 

We collect from undoubted historical evidence, that during a 
period of twelve hundred years, a free intercourse subsisted be- 
tween India, E^ypt, Greece, and Chaldea. Of course the " wis- 
" dom" of each of these nations respectively must have been com- 
mon to all, and their systems of theology and astronomy would 
have been allied to each other ; as we know in fact they were. 
How it happened, by the mere operation of natural causes, that 
Greece and Rome should have left Egypt and India so far behind, 
is yet to be accounted for ; though the purpose of it in the de- 
signs of the divine Providence, is very evident. 

But now the wisdom of the East hath passed away with the 
wisdom of Egypt; and we might with equal justice attribute civ- 
ilization to the present race of Egyptians, as to the present race of 
the Hindoos. 5 

Historians have been at great pains to collect vestiges of the 
ancient civilization of the Hindoos ; and with some success ; for 
these vestiges are as manifest as those of the early civilization of 
Egypt or of Chaldea. Doctor Robertson says that he prosecuted 
his laborious investigation with the view and hope, u that, if his 
" account of the e^rly civilization of India should be received as 
" just and well established, it might have some influence upon the 
" behaviour of Europeans towards that people."* This was a hu- 
mane motive of our celebrated historian. But as it is difficult for 

* Dissertation on India, page 335, 



85 



us to respect men merely for the civilization of their forefathers ; 
a more useful deduction appears to be this ; that since the Hindoos 
are proved on good evidence, to have been a civilized people in 
former days, we should endeavour to make them a civilized peo- 
ple again. Docior Robertson seems to think that the Hindoos 
are even now " far advanced beyond the inhabitants of the two 
" other quarters of the globe in improvement." Such a senti- 
ment indeed is apt to force itself on the mind, from a mere inves- 
tigation of books. But to a spectator in India, the improvement 
alluded to will appear to be very partial ; and the quality of it is 
little understood in Europe. It is true that the natives excel in 
the manual arts of their cast ; and that some of them, particularly 
those who are brought up amongst Europeans, acquire a few ideas 
of civility and general knowledge. But the bulk of the common 
people^ from Cape Comorin to Thibet, are not an improved peo- 
ple. Go into a village, within five miles of Calcutta, and you will 
find an ignorance of letters and of the worjd, an intellectual debili- 
ty* a wretchedness of living, and a barbarism of appearance, which, 
by every account, (making allowance for our regular government 
and plentiful country) are not surpassed among the natives in the 
interior of Africa or back settlements of America.* On the prin- 

* See Park and Mackenzie. [Justice requires, that the aboriginal 
people on the Malabar coast be distinguished from most of those inhabit- 
ing " from Cape Comorin to Thibet." The country, denominated Proper 
Malabar, comprehends a tract of land, beginning at Mount Dilly, in the 
latitude of 12 north, and extending to Cape Comorin, and is bounded in- 
land by that vast chain of mountains which separates the Malabarian coast 
from the Coromandel. The inhabitants of this region differ extremely, in 
their manners and customs, from those of the more northern parts, though 
separated from them but by an imaginary line. " Here the whole govem- 
" ment and people wear a new face and form." This country is divided 
into a multitude of petty kingdoms, through which are diffused nearly the 
same modes of religion, manners, and policy. An author, who visited the 
East Indies about half a century ago, having mentioned some of the peculiar 
customs of this people, observes : " From such strange customs one would 
" naturally enough conclude, that nothing but such a barbarism reigns in 
" the Malabar as among the savages of America : yet this is far from be- 
*' ing the case. The Malabars have in general even a certain politeness, 
" and especially a shrewdness of discernment of their interests, which 
'* those who deal or treat with them are sure to experience. Like most of 
" the Orientalists, they are grave, know perfectly well how to keep dignity, 
" and are great observers of^ silence, especially in their public functions. 
" They despise and distrust all verboseness in the management of state af- 
" fairs. Their harangues are succinct and pathetic. A king of Travancore, 
" for example, on two ambassadors being sent to him by the Nai'ck of 
" Madura, a neighboring prince, and one of them having made a prolix 
" speech, and the other preparing to take it up and proceed in the same 
" manner, where the other had left off, austerely admonished him in these 
*' few words, Bo not be long, life is short" Grose's Voyage to the East In- 
dies, i. 245 The art of writing on palm leaves, were there no other evi- 
dence, would alone prove the ingenuity and former cultivation of the Mala- 
barians. When the Protestant missionaries first visited Malabar, this art was 
familiar to the natives. The orders for the Synod of Diamper were issued 
on palm leaves, written after the manner of the country, and styled Ollas. 



86 



eiple of some late philosophers, that those men are most civilized,, 
who approach nearest to the simplicity of nature, it might be ex- 
pected perhaps tnat the Hindoos are a civilized people. But even 
this principle fails them. For an artificial and cruel supersmion 
debases their minds, and holds them in a state of degradation, 
which to an European is scarcely credible- 
There is one argument against the possibility of their being in a 
civilized state, which to the accurate investigators of the human 
mind in Europe, will appear conclusive. The cast of the multi- 
tude, that is, the Sooders, are held in abhorrence and contempt by 
the Brahmins. It is a crime to instruct them. It is a crime for 
that unhappy race even to hear the words of instruction. The 
Sooder is considered by the Brahmins as an inferior species of be- 
ing, even in a physical sense ; intellectual incapacity is therefore 
expected and patiently endured, and the wretched Sooder is sup- 
posed, at the next transmigration of souls, to animate the body of 
a monkey or a jackall. 

The philosopher of Geneva himself would not have contended 
for the civilization of the Sooders. 

H. 

Excessive Polygamy of the Koolin Brahmins. 

The Brahmins in Bengal accuse individuals of their own order 
of a very singular violation of social propriety ; and the disclosure 
of the fact will probably, place the character of the venerable 
Brahmin in a new light. 

The Koolins, who are accounted the purest and the most sacred 

" L' Archidiacre envoya de tons cotes des Ollas, ou Lettres ecrites a la ma- 
" mere du Pays avec des stilets de fer sur des feuilles de Palmier." La 
Croze. Many of the people take down the discourses of the missionaries 
on ollas, that they may read them afterward to their families at home. As 
soon as the minister has pronounced the text, the sound of the iron style on 
the palm leaf is heard throughout the congregation. This art, it appears, 
is not confined to the Malabarian coast, but is practised at Tanjour. " The 
" natives of Tanjour and Travancore can write down what is spoken delib- 
«' erately, without losing one word. They seldom look at then- odas while 
" writing, and can write in the dark with fluency." See Appendix to Star 
in theEast. A late missionary says, that they " write in Tamul short 
hand ;" and that "the sermon of the morning is regularly read in the even- 
" ing by the Catechist from his Palmyra leaf." The first Danish missiona- 
ries mention this art as practised at Tranquebar, near Travancore, by the 
natives. They also describe the Malabarians (and such they appear to have 
called the natives on the east side of the Peninsula, as far as the seat of their 
mission) as " a witty and sagacious people," and as " quick and sharp 
" enough in their way." Their sagacity, however, did not secure them from 
the grossest idolatry and superstition ; and they have only given an addition- 
al proof to what was before furnished by the Greeks and Romans, that the 
world by wisdom knew not God. See an account of the " Idolatry of the 
Malabarians," in the Account of the Danish Mission in the East Indies, For 
£.n account of the literature of the Hindoos, see Sir William Jones's Disseiv 
tation on the Literature of Asia. Amer. Edit.'] 



87 



cast of the Brahmins, claim it as a privilege of their order, to mar- 
ry an hundred wives. And they sometimes accomplish that num- 
ber ; it being accounted an honour by other Brahmins to unite 
their daughters to a Kooiin Brahmin. The wives live commonly 
in their father's houses ; and the Kooiin Brahmin visits them all 
round, generally once a year ; on which occasion, he receives a 
present from the father. The progeny is so numerous in some 
instances, that a statement of the number (recorded in the regis- 
ters of the cast) would scarcely obtain credit. 

As in the case of human sacrifices at Saugor, and of the number 
of women who are annually burned near Calcutta, there was a 
disposition among many to discredit the fact ; it may be proper to 
adduce a few names and places to establish the excessive polyga- 
my of the Kooiin Brahmins. 

The Ghautucks, or registrars of the Kooiin cast state, that Ra- 
jeb Bonnergee, now of Calcutta, has forty wives ; and that Raj- 
chunder Bonnergee, also of Calcutta, has forty-two wives, and in- 
tends to marry more ; that Ram raj a Bonnergee of Bicrampore, 
aged thirty years, and Pooran Bonnergee, Rajkissore Chuttergee, 
and Roopram Mookergee, have each upwards of forty wives, and 
intend to marry more ; that Birjoo Mookergee of Bicrampore, 
who died about five years ago, had ninety wives ; that Pertab Bon- 
nergee of Panchraw, near Burdwan, had seventy wives ; that 
Ramkonny Mookergee of Jessore, who died about twelve years 
ago, had one hundred wives ; and that Rogonaut Mookergee of 
Bale Gerrea, near Santipore, who died about four years ago, had 
upwards of one hundred wives. 

The effects of this excessive polygamy are very pernicious to 
society ; for it is a copious source of female prostitution. Some 
of these privileged characters make it a practice to marry, mere- 
ly for the dowry of a wife ; and as she seldom sees her husband 
during his life, and dare not marry another after his death, she has 
strong temptations to an irregular conduct. This monopoly of 
Women by the Kooiin Brahmins is justly complained of by Brah- 
mins of the other orders ; and they have expressed a hope that it 
will be abolished by authority. They affirm that this (like many 
other reigning practices) is a direct violation of the law of the 
Shasters, which does not allow more than four wives to a Brah- 
min. 

I. 

Testimonies to the general Character of the Hindoos. 

As a doubt has been sometimes expressed regarding the real 
character of the Hindoos, and it has been supposed that their de- 
generacy only commenced in the last century, we shall adduce 
the testimony of three competent judges, who lived at different 
periods of time, and occupied different situations in life. The first 



88 



is a king of Hindoostan, who was well acquainted with the higher 
classes of the Hindoos ; the second a city magistrate, who was 
conversant with the lower classes ; and the third an author, well 
versed in their mythology, and intimately acquainted with their 
learned men. The concurring testimony of these witnesses will 
be received with more respect on this account, that the first evi- 
dence is that of a Mahomedan, the second of a modern philoso- 
pher, and the third of a Christian : and to these we shall add the 
testimony of a Brahmin himself. 

1. In the Tuzuc Timuri, " containing maxims of Tamerlane 
" the Great, derived from his own experience, for the future gov- 
" ernment of his conquests," there is the following mandate to his 
sons and statesmen : 

" Know, my dear children, and elevated statesmen, that the in- 
" habitants of Hindoostan and Bengal are equally debilitated in 
" their corporeal, and inert in their mental faculties. They are 
u inexorable in temper, and at the same time so penurious and 
" sordid in mind, that nothing can be obtained from them but by 
" personal violence. It appears unquestionable to me, that this 
" people are under the displeasure of the Almighty, otherwise a 
" prophet would have been appointed for them, to turn them away 
" from the worship of idols, and fire and cows, and to direct them 
" to the adoration of the true God. Regardless of honour, and 
" indecent in their dress, they sacrifice their lives for trifles (they 
" give their souls for a farthing), and are indefatigable in unworthy 
" pursuits ; whilst improvident and imprudent, their ideas are 
" confined and views circumscribed. Like those demons who, 
" with a view to deceive, can assume the most specious appear- 
" ances, so the native of Hindoostan cultivates imposture, fraud, 
" and deception, and considers them to be meritorious accom- 
" plishments. Should any person entrust to him the care of his 
" property, that person will soon become only the nominal posses- 
" sor of it. 

" The tendency of this my mandate to you statesmen, is, to 
" preclude a confidence in their actions, or an adoption of their 
" advice.* But should their assistance be necessary, employ them 
" as the mechanical, and support them as the living instruments 
" of labour." Asiatic Miscellany, Vol. III. p. 179. 

2. The second testimony to the general character of the Hin- 
doos shall be that of Mr. Holwell, who was a citv magistrate of 
Calcutta about the middle of last century. Mr. Holwell calls him- 
self a philosopher ; and, as such, he is an admirer of the Hindoo 
mythology, and alleges that a Brahmin would be a perfect model 
of piety and purity, if he would only attend to the precepts of the 
Shasters. 

" The Gentoos, in general, are as degenerate, crafty, supersti- 

* Marquis Cornwallis was never known, daring his administration in 
India, to admit a native to his confidence. Under the administration of 
Marquis WeUesley there is a total exclusion of native counsel. 



89 



u tious, litigious, and wicked a people as any race of beings in the 
" known world, if not eminently more so, especially the common 
" run of Brahmins ; and we can truly aver, that daring almost five 
" years, that we presided in the judicial Cutcherry Court of Cal- 
" cutu, never any murder, or other atrocious cri.ne, came belore 
" us, but it was proved in the end that a Brahmin was at the bot- 
" torn of it."* 

3. At Benares, the fountain of Hindoo learning and religion, 
where Capt. Wiiford, author of the Essays on the Indian and Egyp- 
tian Mythology, has long resided in the society of the Brahmins, 
a scene has been iateiy exhibited, which certainly has never had a 
parallel in any other learned society in the world. 

The Pundit of Capt. Wiiford having, lor a considerable time, 
been guilty of interpolating his books, and of fabricating new sen- 
tences in old works, to answer a particular purpose, was at length 
detected and publicly disgraced. As a last effort to save his char- 
acter, " he brought ten Brahmins, not only as his compurgators 
" but to swear by what is most sacred in their religion to the 
u genuineness of the extracts."! Capt. Wiiford would not permit 
the ceremonial of perjury to take place, and dismissed them from 
his presence with indignation. 

-\mong what tribe of barbarians in America, or in the Pacific 
Ocean, couid there be found so many of their principal men, in 
one piuce, who would come forth, and confirm a falsehood in the 
presence of their countrymen, by a sole mn act of the country's 
religion, like these learned disciples of Brahma at Benares ! 

4. To the foregoing we shall add the testimony of a Brahmin 
himself, extracted from a paper, entitled " A Defence of the Hin- 
u doos." — " These ravages of Hindoostan (from the repeated inva- 
" sion of the Mussulmans) so disturbed the pe .ee of the country, 
u that the principles of its inhabitants were confounded, their 
u learning degraded, and their customs entirely forgotten. Thus 
" reduced, having no means of support, they were induced to prac- 
" tise the vices forbidden them ; they would have become savages^ 
u or have been entirely rooted out, had not the glorious British 
" nation established the standard of their government " 

See Defence of the Hindoos against Mr. Newnham's College 
Essay ; by Senkariah, a learned Brahmin at Madras. Madras 
Gazette, 10th November, 1804. 

K. 

Jewish Scriptures at Cochin. 

There is reason to believe that scriptural records, older than 
the apostolical, exist on the coast of Malabar. At Cochin there 

* Holwell's Historical Events, p. 152. 
t Asiat. Res. Vol. VIII. p. 28. 

12 



90 



is a colony of Jews, who retain the tradition that they arrived in 
India soon after the Babylonian captivity. There are in that pro- 
vince two classes of Jews, the white and the black Jews. The 
black Jews are those who are supposed to have arrived at that ear- 
ly period. The white Jews emigrated from Europe in later ages. 
What seems to countenance the tradition of the black Jews is, that 
they have copies of those books of the Old Testament which were 
written previously to the captivity, but none of those whose dates 
are subsequent to that event. 

Some years ago the President of Yale College, in America, an 
eminent archaiologist, addressed a letter to Sir William Jones, on 
the subject of these manuscripts, proposing that an enquiry should 
be instituted by the Asiatic Society ; but. Sir William died before 
the letter arrived. His object was to obtain the whole of the fifth 
chapter of Genesis, and a collation of certain other passages in the 
Old Testament ; and also to ascertain whether the MSS. at Cochin 
were written in the present Hebrew character, or in another Orien- 
tal Palaeography.* 

* [The particular design of the late President Stiles, in soliciting this 
inquiry, was to ascertain, whether the copy of the Pentateuch, belonging to 
the Jews at Cochin (supposing them to possess a Hebrew cony of remote de- 
rivation), accords with the Hebrew, the Septuagint, or the Samaritan. The 
difference between these copies of the Old Testament, in the chronology of 
the patriarchal ages, is known to be great ; and he was very desirous to de- 
termine, if possible, which is correct. Although Sir William Jones died be- 
fore the President's Letter reached India, a member of the Asiatic So- 
ciety acknowledged the receipt of it, informing, that it was read at the first 
meeting of the Society after its reception ; and that it would be answered by 
Sir John Shore, the President of the Society as soon as he should receive re- 
plies to fie inquiries which he had directed to be made at Cochin and Cranga- 
nore, respecting the points which "the laudable zeal" of the writer " wished 
to have ascertained."! — The long wished for inquiry has at length been made 
by the respectable Author of this Memoir, under the auspices of the 
Marquis Wellesley ; and it appears, that the Black Jews colonized on the 
co -.sts of India long before the Christian sera ; that tiie very imperfect re- 
semblance of their countenance to the Jews of Europe indicates that they have 
been detached from the parent stock in Judea, many ages before the race 
of Jews in the West ; and that ihey are descendants from those ancient dis- 
persions recorded in the Sacred History ; that corroborative of this is the 
fact, hat certain of these tribes do not call themselves Jews, but Beni-Is- 
r.ael, or Israelites / that in the record chests of the synag-ogues of the Black 
Jews of Cochin have been discovered old copies of the Law, some of which 
are complete, and for the most part legible ; that at the remote synagogues 
of the same description of Jews, situated at Tritooa, Paroor, Chenotta, and 
Maleh, have been found many old writings, among which are some of great 
length in Rabbinical Hebrew, but in so ancient and uncommon a character, 
as to require much time and labour to ascertain their contents ; that they 
have, in most places, the book of the Law, the book of Job, and the Psalms, 
but know little of the Prophets ; that some of them have even lost the book: 
of the Law, and only know that they are Israelites from tradition, and from 
their observance of peculiar rites ; and that in a coffer of a synagogue of the 
Black Jews, in the interior of Malaysia, there has been found an old copy 
of the Law, written on a roll of leather, about 50 feet long, composed of 
skins sewed together, so worn out, in some places, as to be patched with 
pieces of parchment. Dr. Buchanan brought from India a collection of 

f See Life of President Stiles. 



91 



In the year 1748, Mr. Romaine, the learned editor of Calasio's 
Hebrew Dictionary, was meditating a voyage to India, for the sole 
purpose of consulting these manuscripts. 

The latest information respecting them is contained in a letter 
lately received from a learned missionary in the south of the pen- 
insula, who had resided for some time in the vicinity of Cochin. 
He states, that he " had constantly been informed that the Jews at 
" Cochin had those books only of the Old Testament which were 
w written before the Babylonian captivity ; and that thence it is 
" generally believed by the Christians of the Deccan, that they 
** had come to India soon alter that event. He adds, that the JViSS. 
" .were on a material resembling paper, in the form of a roll, and 
u that the character had a strong resemblance to Hebrew, if not 
« Hebrew." 

By the inspection of these MSS. some light might be thrown on 
the controversy respecting (1.) the Hebrew and Samaritan letters ; 
(2 .) the antiquity of trie vowel points ; (3 ) the Scripture chrono- 
logy ; and (4.) the correctness of the European copies of the Old 
Testament. Dr. Kennicott complains of a practice among the 
Western Jews of altering many copies to a conformity with some 
particular manuscript. He also accuses them of wilful corruption ; 
as in expunging the word k> b$ " in Deut. xxvii.26. Bishop Louth 
suspects them of leaving out words in certain places, to invalidate 
the argument of the Christians ; as for example, " m^b" Isaiah 
liii. 8. ; where the Septuagint read " Bavxror" But Jews in the 
Eas-, remote from the learned controversy of Christians, would 
have no motive for such corruptions. 

It is in contemplation of the Author of this Memoir to visit Co- 
chin, previously to his return from India, for the express purpose 
of investigating these ancient Jewish records ; and also of exam- 
ining the books oi the Nestorian Christians, who are said to possess 
some MSS. in the Chaldaic character, of a high antiquity.* 

Oriental Manuscripts, chiefly Biblical, written in the Hebrew, Syriac, and 
Ethiopic languages ; and presented them to the University of Cambridge 
in England. The Hebrew manuscripts were obtained from the Black 
Jews ; and among- them, it is presumed, is the old copy of the Law above 
described ; for the person employed in arranging and collating the Oriental 
Manuscripts for the Library, to which they are presented, observes : — '-' A 
" copy of the Hebrew Pentateuch, written on g'oat skins, and found in one of 
" their synagogues, is in the Buchanan collection." Amer. Edit.~\ 

* [Dr. Buchanan fulfilled his intention. In 1806, he travelled from 
Cape Comoi in by land ; and proceeded from the sea coast into the interior 
of the country, north east from Qailon. In this sequestered region of Hm- 
doostan he found churches, where, the inhabitants informed him, no Euro- 
pean had ; to their knowledge, visited before. It appears, that the number 
of Syrian churches is greater than had been supposed ; that there are, at 
this time, 55 churches in Malayala, acknowledging the Patriarch of Antioch, 
and estimated to contain 23,000 people ; that their doctrines are not at vari- 
ance in essentials with the church of England ; that their bishops, and the 
metropolitan, after conferring with his clergy on die subject, delivered the 
following opinion : " That an union with the English church, or at least 



92 



L. 

Shanscrit Testimonies of Christ. 

The learned Wilford, who has resided for many years at Be- 
nares, the fountain of Shanscrit literature, and has devoted himself 
entirely to researches into Hindoo mythology and Oriental history, 
has just finished a work which will be received with much satis- 
faction by the public. It is a record of the testimonies contained 
in the Shanscrit writings of *he truth of the Christian religion. 

This work which is yet in manuscript, is now in circulation 
(January, 1805) with the members of the Asiatic Society, pre- 
viously to its puolication in the Asiatic Researches. It is entitled, 
" Saiivahana ; the Son of the Jacshaca, or Carpenter ; or lntro- 
« duction of the Christian Religion into India ; its Progress and 
« Decline." 

From these evidences it appears, that the prophecies of the Old 
Testament were recorded in the Shanscrit Puranas of India, as 
in the Sibylline books of Rome ; that the rumour of the univer sal 
dominion of the Messiah had alarmed the emperors of the East as 
well as the emperors of Rome ; and that holy men journeyed from 
the East, directed by a miraculous star, to see the heavenly child. 
It further appears, that many of the Shanscrit writings to which 
had been attributed a vast antiquity, were not only composed after 
the Christian aera, but contain particulars of the advent, birth, life, 
miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Saviour. 

" such a connexion as should appear to both churches practicable and ex- 
*' pedient, would be an happy event, and favourable to the advancement of 
*' religion ;" that it is in contemplation to send to England some of the Syr- 
ian youth, for education and ordination ; that the old Syrians have contin- 
ued, till lately, to receive their bishops from Antioch, but that ancient pa- 
triarchate being now nearly extinct, and incompetent to the appointment of 
learned men, " the Christian church in Malayala looks henceforth to Bri- 
" tain for the continuance of that light which has shone so long in this dark 
*' region of the world ;" that Dr Buchanan was about to commence the 
Malayalam translation of the Scriptures, and that there are 200,000 Chris- 
tians* in Malayalam, who are ready to receive it : that there are various 
ancient Syrio-Chaldaic manuscripts in Malayala ; that a volume has been 
found in a remote church of the mountains, containing the Old ana New 
Testaments, engrossed on strong vellum in large folio, having three columns 
in the page, written with beautiful accuracy, in the Estrangelo Syriac (the 
character in which the oldest Syrian manuscripts are written), and ill mi- 
nated ; that the Syrian church assigns to tins manuscript a high antiquity ; 
and that it has been handed down to the present time under circumstances 
so peculiarly favourable to accurate preservation, as may justly entitle it to 
respect, in the collation of doubtful readings in the sacred text This vol- 
ume was presented to Dr. Buchanan by Mar Dionysius, the archbishop of 
the Indian church, and is now deposited among the Oriental Manuscripts in 
the public library of the University of Cambridge. Amer. Edit.~] 

* In this estimate are included with the old Syrian (~ commonly called St. 
Thome, or Jacobite) Christians, the Syrian Roman Cath< lies, and the Latin 
Roman Catholics. In Munro, Francis, and Parker's Edition of the Star in 
the East ( p. 45.J it is incorrectly printed 20,000. 



93 



To establish fully the authenticity of these important records, 
and to invite investigation, Captain Wiltord has deposited his au- 
thorities and vouchers in the library of the College of Fort William, 
and among the archives ot the Asiatic Society. 

At tne conclusion of the work the learned author thus expresses 
himself; " I have written this account of the Christian religion 
" with the impartiality of an historian ; fully persuaded that 
« our holy religion cannot possibly receive any additional lustre 
« from it." 

M. 

Chinese Version of the Scriptures ; and Chinese Literature. 

1. The projected translation of the Scriptures into the Chinese 
language in England, which we understand, has already obtained 
the most respectable patronage, is considered here as an under- 
taking, which will be attended with extreme difficulty, if it be 
not found altogether impracticable. Before any commencement 
be made, the subject ought certainly to be maturely considered, 
both in regard to the expense and the execution. The estimate 
is stated to be thirty tnousand pounds sterling, and doubtless, the 
expense of executing the work in the proposed form, by tyfies, 
(or even by copperplate, which would be the cheapest and perhaps 
the only practicable mode in England,) is not over-rated at that 
sum. 

2. But who is to translate the work ? Dr. Montucci's Diction- 
ary, now in the press, must indeed be a valuable performance, 
(judging from the genuineness of the materials and the erudition 
or the compiler,) and it will be of considerable use to any transla- 
tor, whether in China or in England. But will the united labours 
o Dr. Montucci and Dr. Hager ever produce a chapter of the 
Bible which will be intelligible to a native of China ? Without 
the aid of learned natives of the country to write their own lan- 
guage, or to hear it read by the translator, no work of this kind 
can be prosecuted with any confidence of its utility. This has been 
sufficiently proved to us in the versions in other Oriental languages 
(much more simple than the Chinese) which have been undertak- 
en at the College of Fort William. Even the Arabic Bible, which 
is now republishing in England, can never be useful as a popular 
work in Arabia, it being composed in the classic, and not in the 
vernacular dialect of that country. For a similar reason the old 
Persian translation is of no use in Persia. 

3. But even supposing a Chinese version of the Scriptures to 
have been executed in England, how is it to be printed ? or in 
what form presented to the Chinese ? Has it been seriously pro- 
posed to print it in a moveable type, and on English paper ! It 
ought to be printed, not in the moveable type, nor in the stereo- 
type, but in the mode commonly used in China. The characters 



94 

are by the Chinese engraved on a tablet of wood the size of the 

page, and the impression is thrown off, as by copperplates in 
England. At Canton, the dispatches from Pekin which arrive in the 
morning, are put into the hands of the engraver, and the newspaper 
is thrown off in the afternoon of the same day. We have Chinese 
artists now in Calcutta, who engrave on wood with neatness and 
accuracy ; and who are competent to engrave the whole of the 
Scriptures in the Chinese manner ; and to print them on China 
paper, and in such a form, that the book shall appear to have been 
published in China. 

If in this projected translation at home, the real object be utility 
to the Chinese people, by affording to them a faithful record of the 
revealed word oi God in their vernacular tongue, we have no hesi- 
tation in affirming that that object will be attained with more 
certain advantage, by remitting one-fourth of the sum, which it 
has been proposed to embark in the undertaking in England, to the 
college of Fort William in Bengal : which institution, it may be 
observed, (independently of this particular object, and considered 
merely as the fountain of Christian knowledge to the Oriental 
world,) is well entitled to the ample support of every Christian 
church and religious society in Europe. 

4. Since the College Report of Literature, published in Septem- 
ber last, (1804 ; ) a commencement has been made in translating the 
Scriptures in the Chinese language. The book of Genesis and 
the Gospel of St. Matthew are in course of translation ; and some 
chapters of each have alreadv been printed off. 

The translator is Johannes Lassar, a native of China, and pro- 
fessor of the Chinese language, assisted by a Chinese moonshee. 
He was iately employed by the Portuguese government at Macao, 
in conducting a correspondence with the court at Pekin. Being 
an Armenian Christian, he translates from the Armenian Bible. 

It must be known to some of the learned in Europe, that the 
Armenian version of the Scriptures is one of the most' accurate 
extant. It is also remarkable for its antiquity ; being among the 
first translations after the Septuagint ; and is styled by the learned 
Orientalists, Golius and La Croze, the " queen of versions." 
Though the Armenian language have no affinity to the Hebrew, or 
to any other language in the world, it abounds in the Oriental 
idiom ; and this Bible is therefore considered by us as eminently 
useful in collating new versions in the Oriental tongues. The 
translators of the Armenian Bible (called the Interpreters) were 
famed for their piety and learning ; their lives are recorded in 
Armenian history in the fifth century of our sera, and their transla- 
tion is reverenced by their nation as an inspired work. From this 
Armenian original, our translator (who is ignorant of the Greek 
and Hebrew languages) is enabled to render a faithful version into 
the language of China. 

We expect soon to be in possession of those portions of the 
Scriptures which have been translated into the Chinese language 



95 



by the Romish missionaries ; and which are interspersed in their 
missals, and catechetical books. Tnese specimens will be of use in 
the general collation of the text, and particaiarly in translating 
proper names ; since it would be improper to deviate unnecessa- 
rily from the expressions already familiar in China. 

The mode which has been adopted for editing the Chinese Bi- 
ble, is the following : 

Each verse is printed in English, in columns of one or two lines, 
from the top to the bottom of the page, and the Chinese version is 
printed in the usual manner, in a corresponding column. The 
English is introduced with a view to render the work a good class 
book for students in the Chinese language. The whole is translated 
in the Mandarine dialect ; but wherever there appears a danger of 
the sense being misunderstood, there are marginal readings in the 
familiar dialects. 

5. On the expediency of publishing the Scriptures in China, we 
shall offer a few observations 

It is the solemn duty of our imperial nation to diffuse Christian 
knowledge throughout the world at all times; but more particularly 
at those periods, when the providence of God shall point out to her 
the means of doing it, and at the same time, offer to her advantage, 
by the execution. To the East and West of peaceful Hindcostan, 
there is a " shaking of the nations." This seems to be favourable 
not only to our own stability, but to the extension of our civilizing 
influence in Asia. The Wahabians to the West are extinguishing 
Muhomedanism. And the enemies of the Tartar dynasty in Cni- 
na threaten the overthrow of that ancient government. After a 
slumber of many ages, that mighty empire seems to be on the eve 
of a terrible convulsion. The spirit of insurrection which broke 
forth about five years ago in the western provinces, is now diffus- 
ing itself towards the eastern parts of the empire ; and a prophe- 
cy is spread abroad that the end of the Tartar dominion is at hand. 

The Chinese are permitted by existing law, to choose what re- 
ligion they please ; the present emperor and his court profess one 
faith, and the people another. They are a curious and inquisitive 
race, and would most certainly read any new book which should be 
put into their hands. " The press in China," says Mr. Barrow, 
" is as free as in England, and the profession of printing open to 
" every one. Tt was the press in Europe that opened a free access 
" to the doctrines of that religion, which of all others, is best cal- 
" culated for the promotion of individual happiness and public 
" virtue,"* The copies of the bible would soon be multiplied in 
China. II an individual (a prime mover of the revolutionary opin- 
ions in Europe) found means to send his "Rights of Man" to Chi- 
na,! shall not our national zeal in the defence of truth and of social 
happiness, urge us to diffuse among that people a code of nobler 
principles ? There are no arguments against this measure of a 

* See Barrow's Travels, page 392. f Ibid. 396. 



96 



benign philosophy and true philanthropy, but those which are con- 
tained in the books of Voltaire and Rousseau. 

6. The British nation, though so intimately connected with 
China by commercial negotiation, has no institution for instruction 
in the Chinese language at home or abroad. The consequences of 
such disadvantage, on our -influence, our character, and our commerce 
at Canton, are well illustrated by an authentic historian, who had 
the best opportunities of obtaining information on the subject,* 

If it be possible any where to furnish to Europeans the means of 
regular instruction in the Chinese language, it may be expected at 
the College of Fort William in Bengal ; our propinquity to C hina af- 
fording opportunities of obtaining a constant supply of teachers and 
books ; and of maintaining a regular correspondence with its learned 
men. Our territories on the continent are contiguous to the Chi- 
nese frontier ; and our islands are resorted to by the Chinese people. 

The French are at this time cultivating the Chinese language 
with great assiduity ; and no doubt with a prospect of certain ad- 
vantage. We have in India satisfactory evidence that they meditate 
an embassy to China, or a descent onCochin China, as soon as peace 
in Europe shall give them opportunity .f " The Frencn," says Mr. 
Barrow, " aware of the solid advantages tnat result from the knowl- 
" edge of languages, are at this time holding out every encourage- 
" ment to the study of Chinese liter dure ; obviously not without 
" design. They know that the Chinese character is understood 
" from the gulf of Siam to the Tartarian Sea, and over a very con- 
" siderable part of tne great Eastern Archipelago ; and that the 
" Cochin Chinese, with whom they have already firmly rooted them- 
" selves, use no other writing than the pure Chinese character, 
" which is also the case with the Japanese. It is to be hoped there- 
" fore that the British nation will not neglect the means of being 
" able to meet the French, if necessary, even on this ground.^ 

* John Barrow, Esq. Secretary to Lord Macartney's Embassy. See his 
Travels in China, page 616. Mr. Barrow is the only writer from Kircher 
downwards, who has illustrated China. 

t During the short interval of the last peace, this expedition was talked 
of publicly at the Mauritius ; and mentioned to he English there as a project 
of France, to which the British government could not possibly have an ob- 
jection. 

Barrow's Travels in China, page 615. 

THE END. 



41 



! 

s 



MEMOIR 



OF THE EXPEDIENCY OF AN 



\ ecclesiastical establishment 



BOTH A3 THE MEANS OF 



A FOUNDATION FOR THE ULTIMATE CIVILIZATION 
OF THE NATIVES. 



1811. 



BRITISH INDIA ; \ 



PERPETUATING THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION AMONG OUR ^ 
S OWN COUNTRYMEN ; S 



^ BY REV. CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN, M. A. S 

tj One of the Chaplains at the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, Vice ? 

S Provost of the College of Fort William, and Professor of Classics 2 

in the same ; and member of the Asiatic Society. k 

~ \ 

I THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Jj 



CAMBRIDGE : S 

PRINTED BY HILLIARD AND METCALF. ^ 



■ 



N. B. All the profits of this edi- 
tion, after a deduction of the necessary 
expenses, will be sacredly devoted to 
the service of the Natives of India. 



Cambridge Bookstore 



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Keeps constantly for sale a large assortment of Books in every 
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La Harpe's Cours de Litterature ; Hume, Smollet, & Bis- 
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Just published by Munroe & Francis, and for sale as above, 
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In press, and will soon be published, 
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o, second Cambridge edition. 

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the last London edition. 



(Q? Printing in its various branches * executed with 
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